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Microsoft Teams Governance

A guide for companies

In most companies, Microsoft Teams has become an indispensable tool and the necessary clarity has become a significant challenge. As a result, the management of Teams and the introduction of Teams governance have become increasingly important and essential.

In an increasingly digitalized world of work, the way teams work together has changed dramatically. With the introduction of tools such as Microsoft Teams, teams can communicate and collaborate efficiently, regardless of their geographical location. In addition to the many advantages of this platform, it has become clear over time that challenges have developed in terms of governance and overview. Teams governance is a crucial aspect of creating a structured environment in Microsoft Teams to both promote productivity and meet the security and compliance requirements of the organization.

What is Teams Governance?

Governance in Microsoft Teams refers to the management of data, settings and access rights within the Microsoft Teams platform. It includes policies, processes and technologies that ensure that teams work together effectively and support business objectives. Good governance helps to strike a balance between flexibility and control, allowing teams to operate autonomously while ensuring security and compliance. It provides a clear overview of access policies and requirements, both internally and for guest access. It ensures a structured creation of teams where team members have sufficient freedom and IT shadowing is avoided, but also prevents the creation of unnecessary teams. Automated archiving processes, approval processes and role models ensure that teams are not over-fragmented and that data is stored, archived or deleted in accordance with compliance guidelines. An overview of the most important functions is shown in the following illustration.

Procedure for creating a Teams Governance

In order to create team governance, clear guidelines for the authorization structure of the areas must be defined in advance. In addition, a plan must be developed for managing the access and authorization of external users and defining the life cycle of a team. The following steps should be considered:

1. Understand working methods: Understand how Teams is used within the organization and the governance requirements.
2. General governanceDefining naming conventions and other general guidelines, such as the archiving process or guest access rights.
3. Define responsibilitiesClarify who is responsible for approving new teams and who is responsible for managing the teams.
4. Implementation options: Preparation for the introduction of a Teams governance tool or provision of resources for implementation via Microsoft on-board resources

Challenges

When creating and implementing Teams governance, experience has shown that there can be a few stumbling blocks that can be counteracted if attention is paid early on. For example, it is important to ensure that each team and each private channel has its own SharePoint site within the archiving process, so that each private channel must be archived separately and it is not sufficient to archive only the team. The lifecycle is at team level and not at channel level. When archiving encrypted data, it is important to note that if security tags are used, the data is readable after archiving and is no longer encrypted. It is also important to pay attention to where the tool is installed. On your own tenant or the supplier tenant (SaaS), which sometimes requires increased rights to the customer tenant and this is often not desirable. The inclusion of guests (external parties) requires well-defined access rights and role models so that data does not fall into the wrong hands.

In addition to the technical challenges, there are also organizational challenges. The entire process from ordering to archiving should be defined at an early stage so as not to delay the introduction unnecessarily.

Avoiding stumbling blocks on the way to implementation

Lessons learned from previous projects can be applied to other projects in order to counteract known stumbling blocks at an early stage, which has a major impact on the successful introduction of team governance. For example, the following "lessons learned" were made in past projects:

• User acceptance & user training: In order to successfully place governance in the company, users should be involved at an early stage. On the one hand, users should be provided with sufficient information during the development process and, on the other hand, their requirements should be taken into account. An important component of user acceptance is good user training, which should not be underestimated. Users must be introduced to the new processes so that they can be used easily and without great effort.
• Guest access incl. archiving process: The integration of guests on your own tenant should also not be underestimated. It requires precise definitions and rules, as well as authorization models and access authorizations and a clear understanding of data storage and the archiving process.
• Implementation options: The implementation options should be precisely determined at the outset so that the right solution can be used for the company. The internal resource situation and responsibilities for implementation should be clearly defined at the outset. Decisions on the possible use of a tool, the governance requirements and, if necessary, support from external expertise should be made at an early stage.

Implementation with Microsoft or another tool?

There are two options for implementing Teams governance: either the use of Microsoft on-board tools or the use of another tool. The choice of the appropriate implementation option depends on the use case and the company's requirements.

Many functions can be implemented with Microsoft Power Platform. You need to know exactly what you want to implement and how, and develop the workflows yourself. This requires a certain amount of know-how and development effort during implementation. Resources with the relevant skills are required to implement the desired guidelines. The advantage is that you don't have to integrate another tool and you don't have another interface.

With the help of a tool, the functions and skills from Teams are bundled together. You have everything in one interface and can more easily adapt and introduce the desired functions to the company. Functions and options are made available that make for successful Teams governance.

There are various tools for creating Teams governance. They differ mainly in the type of administration, features and functionalities offered. Based on experience from various projects, the requirements and possibilities for a Teams Governance tool are known and summarized in an evaluation matrix. Depending on the company's requirements, this can be used to evaluate the right tool or serve as the basis for a tender. A simplified section of this matrix can be seen in the following illustration:  

Conclusion

Effective Teams governance is crucial for the secure and efficient use of Microsoft Teams in companies. By implementing clear rules, processes and control mechanisms, the full benefits of Teams can be realized without neglecting security and compliance. The use of specialized tools can facilitate and automate this process, but it is important that companies understand and implement the basic principles of governance. Experience shows that above a certain number of teams and when guest access is involved, the use of a governance solution is essential.

Our consultants will be happy to support you with your digital workplace project so that you get the introduction and functions of Teams governance right from the start. We can provide you with active support, particularly when it comes to tool evaluation and introduction.