Governance in O365 and SharePoint Online

1. Governance in O365 | SharePoint Online
Yes, You Can and Yes, You Should
Governance guidance for O365 and SharePoint Online
Don Daubert
Covenant Technology Partners
Twitter @sharepointroxs
ddaubert@mailctp.com

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3. Goal for this session…
• DiscussionDialog
• Start having these conversations now rather than later
• Haven't rolled out O365 Yet? Start Now
• Already rolled out O365Services? Start Yesterday!
• Compromise
• A good plan can only work with compromise
• Have ideas and goals but don’t be afraid to listen and work through issues
• Unity
• You have to work together. Only one entity contributing to the Governance plan will fail

4. What is Governance?
• Let’s Discuss
• “Governance uses people, process, technology, and policies to define a service,
resolve ambiguity, and mitigate conflicts within an organization.”
• Consistent user experience (Promotes better adoption)
• A Governance team is a group of employees that work together to guide the
decisions about how Office 365 is configured and consumed.
• Define Stakeholders
• Meet on a regular basis (Agenda)
• Old Business
• New Business
• Future Business

5. Why do I need Governance?
• To some this is obvious, to others it is not. Users may not understand the importance. Explain it to
them.
• Break down the wall between Users and IT
• Understand features the platform offers and what changes will affect the systems when patches,
upgrades, new features are rolled out.
• O365 is a constantly changing and evolving beast
• Understanding how the systems are being used and consumed.
• This is a key component of a successful Governance plan.
• Keeping the systems secure
• From IT’s perspective this is the most important piece.
• Monitor Growth, Usage, Auditing
• Compliance, DLP, Threats, Data Archive
• Cost, Manpower, Time

6. What is a Governance Plan?
• Written documentation for regular reference and sharing with the organization.
• Ask 6 different people and you’ll get 10 different answers
• Keep it flexible (Compromise, Listen)
• Make the documentation accessible and consumable. Written for End Users. IT
jargon will not encourage involvement from Business Units.
• Does not need to be a 50 page thesis
• Start small and expand as needed. Just start

7. O365 Governance Team
• Senior Management – To lend weight and enforce decisions.
• HR Management – To makes sure rules and regulations are followed.
• IT Management - To ensure decisions are within technical capabilities and to guide
technology driven goals.
• IT Personnel responsible for O365, EXO, SharePoint, Identity, etc
• Business Units – The voice of the people, to encourage new technology, spark discussions
around new solutions, efficiency, adoption, marketing.
• Accounting
• Finance
• Marketing
• Dev Teams

8. O365 Governance Plan
• What to start with
• Introduction stating purpose and audience
• Definitions/Acronyms – Some jargon is inevitable. Explain it.
• Roles and Responsibilities - Define the Governance Committee, BU’s, Vendors
• Table of Contents

9. O365 Governance Plan
Admin Account Governance
• Admin Account Governance
• Naming Convention
• Appropriate use
• Who? Level of permission? Admin account
• On Prem vs Cloud consistency
• Licensing

10. O365 Governance Plan
SharePoint
• SharePoint Site Governance
• Who gets to create a site? Approval process?
• Which site templates?
• Site MonitoringAuditing? What do you need to know
• How do you avoid abandoned sites? Process to deal with
• Manage access to sites?
• Customize the access request process?
• Site owner expectations? PermissionsContent
• External Sharing? Rules?
• Owners per site? Transition? Training
• Complianceregulatory requirements that affect SharePoint?
• Microsoft Teams storageusage of SharePoint?
• Hub Sites?

11. O365 Governance Plan
OneDrive For Business
• OneDrive For Business Governance
• External sharing?
• If yes how often is access reviewed?
• Complianceregulatory requirements affect OneDrive?
• Legal holds? Who?
• What is appropriate usage of OneDrive at our organization? How is that
being communicated to users?
• What OneDrive training needs to be provided to Managers?
• When one of their direct reports leaves the organization and they get notified
about access to the user’s OneDrive?
• Assigned to other Management Access?

12. O365 Governance Plan
Information Governance/ Data Governance
• Information Governance/ Data Governance
• Policies, Procedures, and Settings regarding sensitive information (social
security numbers, PHI, customer lists, etc)
• Compliance requirements?
• Records Management?
• What are our policies about documentdata retention as they apply to
SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, Exchange.

13. O365 Governance Plan
Microsoft Teams Governance
• Microsoft Teams Governance aka the Wild West
• Who can create a Team?
• AnyoneAdmins
• Creation Process?
• Do we limit or monitor Team creation?
• What is this process?
• Team expiration policy?
• TeamsGroups to make use of a naming convention prefix?
• Teams abandonment?
• AppsConnectorsGiphy

14. O365 Governance Plan
Service Configuration Process Governance
• Service Configuration Process Governance or Change Management
• What changes in Office 365 Admin portal should be under strict change control?
• What changes in Office 365 Admin portal should not be under change control?

15. O365 Governance Plan
General Usage Governance
• General Usage Governance
• “When to use what” ie Yammer vs TeamsSharePoint vs Teams vs ODFB
• Monitor usage and reporting of workloads?
• Measuring successful adoption?
• HR Onboarding process integrationO365 training to new employees?

16. O365 Governance Plan
License Governance
• License Governance
• Which license or licenses do you need?
• Which users get which licenses? Rules
• License optionsadjustment when a license is assigned a user?
• License assignment automation? Onboarding
• Offboarding ProcessLicense Reclaimed?
• Responsible party for Licensing decisions?
• Do you buy your Licenses monthly or annually?
• From Microsoft or a reseller?

17. SharePoint Online Plan - General
• Navigation/organization guidelines
• Site Collections vs Subsites, HeadersFooters, What is in Nav vs What isn’t, End User communication
• IT ResourcesProcesses
• Who are the contacts
• What is the process for common tasks or requests ie site creationdeletion
• Permissions guidelines
• Site provisioning
• Requests and approval process
• Content creation
• Maintenance
• User tipsBest Practices
• Site Layouts, Webparts, visual organization, fonts, logos, colors etc.

18. SharePoint Online Plan - Detail
• Site Organization – (Site CollectionSubsiteHub SitesOrg Navigation)
• Site Template Specifications – (Colors, Fonts, Web Parts, Icons, Logos)
• New Site CollectionSubsite Criteria – (What goes where? Security)
• Localization Spec and Variations - (Time Zones, Languages)
• Storage ResourcesRecycle Bin policies - (Quotas, Retention)
• Site IA, Navigation and Site Design - (Hubs Sites?)
• Library and List Settings - (Versioning, Approval, Content Types)
• Site CollectionSubsite Security – (SP groups, AD Groups, O365 Groups, Inheritance)
• IRM, DLP, eDiscovery – (Control, Compliance, Security, Legal)
• External Sharing Controls – (YesNo, Options, Auditing, Management)
• Personal Device Management – (Tablets, Phones, SP, ODFB, Teams, Outlook) Intune?
• Audit Logging and Reporting – (How much auditing, Who gets reports)
• Site Lifecycle Management – (Monitoring, Stale Content, Abandoned)
• Search - (What should be searched, Who sees results, custom results, people, detail)

19. Resources
• Microsoft SharePoint Governance Plan Resources –
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/sharepoint/governance/governance#Downloadable%20resources%20about
%20governance
• Microsoft Governance framework template –
• https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=54663
• Sample SharePoint Governance Plan –

20. Summary
• Yes, this is a daunting task. Again start small and build.
• Most attempts fail because of taking on too much, too soon, with input from
only one stakeholder
• Prioritize if you feel you're getting bogged down. Address the most
important items first.
• Keep the documentation fluid, compromise, listen, keep having
your meeting.
• Keep IT happy, Keep Users happy.
• Governance with patience, tenacity, and with common goals.

21. Governance – Questions?
Business Intelligence
SQL Server
Azure
Office365
.NET Apps
Project Management
Forms & Workflow
Intranets
Extranets
Websites
SharePointTeams
Sitecore
HTML5/CSS3
Microsoft CRM
Don Daubert
Senior Consultant