Navigating Governance in Microsoft Teams: A Detailed Guide

24 Oct Navigating Governance in Microsoft Teams: A Detailed Guide

Navigating Governance in Microsoft Teams: A Detailed Guide

Microsoft Teams has become an indispensable tool for organizations seeking to streamline collaboration and communication. However, the platform’s rich set of features also necessitates a structured governance strategy to ensure optimal usage and security. This guide aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the governance capabilities within Microsoft Teams, outlining decision points and best practices to ensure an effective governance model.

Governance in Microsoft Teams is not a one-size-fits-all approach. It requires careful planning, implementation, and continuous review. By taking into account the decision points and recommendations outlined in this guide, you can create a robust governance model that’s tailored to your organization’s unique needs. Setting up such a governance model and configuring policies requires specialized expertise in the Microsoft 365 and Teams landscape. For further expertise, opinions, and guidance, you can contact us at [email protected]. Figure 1 shows the Microsoft Teams Governance flow diagram.

Figure 1 Microsoft Teams Governance flow

Section 1: Group and Team Creation, Naming, Classification, and Guest Access

Background

Many organizations need to enforce specific protocols around team naming, classification, guest access, and the ability to create new teams. While Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) and sensitivity labels allow customization, be mindful that limiting group and team creation may hinder productivity. Many Microsoft 365 and Office 365 services rely on groups for functionality.

Decision Points

1. Naming Convention: Does your organization have specific naming guidelines for teams?
2. Classifications: Should team creators have the ability to assign unique classifications?
3. Guest Access: Do you need to control the ability to add guests on a per-team basis?
4. Creation Restrictions: Is there a need to limit who can create new teams?

Recommendations

• Scenario 1: If you require strict naming conventions, configure Azure AD to enforce specific prefixes or suffixes for team names. For example Teams name is Bloguc-US-Marketing, Bloguc-India-Sales
• Scenario 2: If you need to add organizational classifications, use sensitivity labels to categorize teams based on data sensitivity or department. For example, Confidential, Restricted, and Bloguc-Public.
• Scenario 3: To control guest access, you can either globally disable it or allow it for specific teams only. For example, invite Microsoft representative to the Teams “Bloguc-US-Marketing”.
• Scenario 4: Limit team creation to specific roles or departments to prevent unnecessary proliferation of teams. For example, In Bloguc Organization all

Next Steps

• Document the requirements.
• Implement these controls during the Teams rollout phase.
• Publish policies to guide user behavior. 

Section 2: Group and Team Expiration, Retention, and Archiving

Background

Organizations often need to set policies around team expiration and data retention. Microsoft Teams allows you to configure group expiration policies and set retention policies for both messages and files. You can also archive inactive teams to preserve them in a read-only state.

Decision Points

1. Expiration Date: Is there a need to set an expiration policy for teams?
2. Data Retention: Are specific data retention policies required?
3. Archiving: Do you need the ability to archive inactive teams?

Recommendations

• Scenario 1: If regulatory compliance dictates data preservation, set retention policies to specify how long data should be kept.
• Scenario 2: Use expiration policies to automatically delete or renew teams based on activity metrics.
• Scenario 3: For projects that have a limited lifespan, use archiving to preserve the state of the team for future reference or audits.

Next Steps

1. Document your organization’s requirements.
2. Implement these controls during your Teams rollout.
3. Communicate and publish these policies.

 Section 3: Group and Team Membership Management

Background

Managing team memberships can be challenging, particularly for large or dynamic teams. Teams offers entitlement management and access reviews to simplify this process, but configuring them requires a clear understanding of the organization’s needs.

Decision Points

1. Membership Management: Is a consistent process required for managing memberships?
2. Justification: Is there a need for members to justify their continued participation?
3. Resource Access: Do you need approval workflows for resource access?

Recommendations

1. Scenario 1: If rapid onboarding and offboarding are common, consider implementing entitlement management to package all necessary resources, including Teams memberships.
2. Scenario 2: For projects with sensitive data, implement access reviews that require team owners or members to periodically confirm or justify their membership.
3. Scenario 3: For inter-departmental projects, use entitlement management to bundle resources and streamline approval processes, perhaps requiring sign-off from a project manager or security officer.

Next Steps

1. Document specific requirements for each type of team.
2. Bundle associated resources like Teams, Groups, SharePoint sites, and apps into access packages.
3. Determine the approval workflows and responsible individuals for granting or denying access.

Section 4: Teams Feature Management

Background

Microsoft Teams allows customization at the feature level. Organizations can control various features such as messaging, meeting, and calling either at the tenant level or on a per-user basis.

Decision Points

1. Feature Limitations: Does your organization wish to limit certain features for all users?
2. User-specific Limitations: Are any restrictions needed for specific user groups?

Recommendations

1. Scenario 1: For organizations concerned with data leakage, consider limiting file sharing and external communications features.
2. Scenario 2: For consultant or temporary worker profiles, you may wish to restrict access to certain internal resources or channels.

Next Steps

1. Document your organization’s requirements.
2. Implement these controls during the Teams rollout.
3. Publish the policies to inform users.

Governance in Microsoft Teams is not a one-size-fits-all approach. It requires careful planning, implementation, and continuous review. By considering the decision points and recommendations outlined in this guide, you can create a robust governance model tailored to your organization’s unique needs.

If you need more information, then reach out us at [email protected]

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