If the word “governance” makes you think of 90s spy movies featuring Tom Cruise or James Bond, you’re not alone. But consider this — our data shows there are more than 2,000 individual configurations that need to be customized manually for each Microsoft 365 tenant.  

When faced with that kind of sprawl, manually governing each aspect of your cloud workspace is no longer an option. In this article, CoreView’s own Microsoft MVPs and experts will cover:  

• A framework, best practices, and starter kit for Microsoft 365 governance
• A complete M365 governance planning roadmap by lifecycle
• A checklist for collaboration governance in Microsoft 365 organizations
• Self-service governance guidelines for Microsoft 365
• Tips to scale and automate a Microsoft 365 governance plan

Ready to develop a comprehensive plan for M365 governance? Let’s dig in.

What Is Microsoft 365 Governance?

Microsoft 365 governance refers to the framework of policies, roles, responsibilities, and processes that control how an organization's business divisions and technical teams work together to achieve its goals using Microsoft 365. It involves managing and controlling how Microsoft 365 services like Teams, Office 365, SharePoint, and OneDrive are created, used, and maintained.  

In essence, Microsoft 365 governance is the framework an organization puts in place to manage their M365 experience, often concerning elements like user controls, auditing, data storage, security, and compliance management. It ensures that sensitive data is protected, only the right people have access to it, and security incidents are prevented, all while reducing unnecessary busywork.

Here’s how Simeon Cloud cofounder and CoreView Product Innovation Specialist, David Nevins, describes governance:

“Governance dictates how your users work in their Microsoft 365 environments to facilitate the consistent and secure performance of your services and systems. A good Microsoft 365 governance framework in this context would secure your organization while providing a good experience for your end users. We want to be secure, but not SO secure that it impedes your employee's productivity.”

Microsoft 365 Governance Framework

Given the sheer breadth of features and functionalities within Microsoft 365, companies without a solid governance framework can face significant challenges in securely managing their environment. Considering that 85% of companies that use Microsoft 365 experienced security breaches in 2021, this isn’t a problem that can be ignored.  

Wondering what an actual Microsoft 365 governance framework looks like in action? Here’s a table outlining the most common elements that a framework should include:

Download the Microsoft 365 Governance Checklist.

Microsoft 365 Governance Guidance and Best Practices

Because of the highly complex nature of Microsoft 365’s cloud architecture, you need to follow certain best practices to make sure that your organizational data is secure without compromising on staff productivity. Here we outline both overarching guidance, as well as tactical practices for governing Microsoft 365.

Key Foundations for Microsoft 365 Governance

Simeon Cofounder David Nevins explains five disciplines for governing Microsoft:

1. Cost management: “As we all know, your Microsoft spend can quickly get out of control. Cost management, in this context, simply means that you are closely monitoring and managing your usage to ensure you are spending efficiently. […] Cost management is all about perfecting the balance of your needs and your budget–which makes developing policies for cost control critical.”
2. Security baseline: “Securing your Microsoft 365 environment requires you to establish a set of security requirements for your organization to abide by. This is known as your security baseline. It is often informed by industry standards such as HIPAA, NIST, CIS, CMMC, and many more. Today, Microsoft provides you with a barebones environment. When you spin up a new Microsoft 365 environment, many of the critical security controls are not applied. It is on IT to establish a baseline set of best practice security configurations, implement those configurations, and ensure your environment remains in that state over time. This is known as desired state configuration (or DSC).”
3. Identity baseline: “I regularly see over-permissioned users and users with the incorrect roles. It’s difficult to have visibility into this, and incorrect roles and over-permissioning is one of the easiest ways for an organization to be breached. It is critical for organizations to establish an identity baseline, leveraging things like Privileged Identity Management (AKA PIM), to ensure that identity is consistently applied across cloud adoption efforts. This ensures the baseline for identity and access is enforced by consistently applying role definitions and assignments.”
4. Resource consistency: “Consistency in resource configuration is key. You’ll need to both establish and enforce practices for onboarding, recovery, and discoverability.  
   
   “For example, when we create a new Microsoft Team or SharePoint site, our resource consistency policy or framework would establish the process for provisioning that Team and SharePoint site in a controlled, organized fashion. We can all relate to seeing an organization that has countless Teams and SharePoint sites created to increase efficiency but it does the opposite!” ‍
5. Deployment acceleration: “Many organizations lack a framework or workflow for deployments, which results in disorganized, inconsistent, and slow deployments. This also plays into tenant security. Without a framework for deploying new resources, people will deploy new resources with the parameters of their choice. This makes things messy and unsecure.  

Key Governance Best Practices for Microsoft 365

Here are a few best practices worth keeping in mind:

• Establish clear policies around provisioning, naming conventions, guest access, and content lifecycle management for Teams, SharePoint sites, and Microsoft 365 Groups.
• Use a least-privilege access model and zero-trust security principles to manage user access and permissions.
• Leverage automated provisioning with compliant templates to ensure newly created tenants align with governance policies.
• Set up efficient approval workflows for tenant creation requests that require business justification.
• Monitor for inactive, unused, or non-compliant tenants and take corrective action like archiving or deleting them.
• Monitor for inactive licenses, teams, and sites to identify opportunities to reallocate resources and maintain a secure environment.
• Automate governance tasks as much as possible using tools like PowerShell and Power Automate to ensure consistency and save IT effort.
• Implement data retention, sensitivity labeling, and data loss prevention policies to secure content.
• Provide governance resources, training, and communication to drive awareness and adoption of policies by end users.
• Assign clear roles and responsibilities for administering the governance framework and enforcing policies.
• Regularly review and update the governance framework to adapt to changing business needs and new Microsoft 365 capabilities.

Find the full list of governance best practices here: Microsoft 365 Governance Best Practices Guide.

CoreView’s Microsoft 365 Governance Starter Kit

If you’re looking for an actionable framework you can implement right away, CoreView offers a free Microsoft 365 Governance Starter Kit to help organizations quickly assess their current governance posture and develop an effective action plan. The kit provides a structured approach to identifying critical governance gaps and implementing best practices. It includes:

• An assessment checklist to pinpoint governance gaps across your Microsoft 365 environment, covering areas like provisioning, access control, compliance, and more.
• Customizable governance plan templates to jumpstart your planning process and ensure you address all key aspects of Microsoft 365 governance.
• Guidance on balancing strong governance with user productivity and collaboration to maximize the value of Microsoft 365.

With 58% of sensitive cloud data residing in Microsoft 365, governance is a top priority for CIOs and CISOs. However, the complexity of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem can make comprehensive governance seem unattainable. CoreView's starter kit aims to simplify the process, helping busy admins quickly identify areas for improvement and take action.  

Planning for Microsoft 365 Governance

In a 2023 Gartner Survey, 64% of respondents said that inadequate support and governance functions were among the top three risks to their organization’s Microsoft 365 environment. That’s why effective governance is crucial for organizations using Microsoft 365 to ensure data security, compliance, and efficient collaboration.  

However, governance doesn't happen by chance — it requires careful planning to create a robust framework that aligns IT and security governance responsibilities with business goals and addresses potential risks.

What is M365 Governance Planning?

Microsoft 365 governance planning is the process of developing a structured approach to manage and control the use of Microsoft 365 services within an organization. Basically, it's the roadmap for how your organization will manage and use Microsoft 365 to support business objectives while maintaining security and compliance.

Governance planning for Microsoft 365 involves three key aspects:

1. Operational Assurance: Operational assurance focuses on ensuring the smooth and efficient functioning of Microsoft 365 services. This includes managing user access, configuring security settings, and maintaining system performance. It involves establishing processes for provisioning, deprovisioning, and ongoing management of user accounts, groups, and licenses. Operational assurance also covers monitoring and reporting on service usage, performance metrics, and potential security threats.
2. Information Assurance: Information assurance is concerned with protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data within Microsoft 365. This involves implementing data classification schemes, setting up retention policies, and configuring data loss prevention measures. It also includes managing compliance with regulatory requirements and industry standards. Information assurance ensures that sensitive data is properly secured, accessed only by authorized users, and handled in accordance with organizational policies and legal obligations.
3. Outcomes Assurance: Outcomes assurance focuses on ensuring that the use of Microsoft 365 aligns with and contributes to the organization's strategic goals. This involves defining key performance indicators (KPIs) for Microsoft 365 adoption and usage, measuring the impact on productivity and collaboration, and assessing the return on investment. Outcomes assurance also includes change management strategies to drive user adoption and maximize the value derived from Microsoft 365 services.

Governance-First Planning for Microsoft 365

Governance-first planning is an approach that prioritizes governance considerations from the very beginning of a Microsoft 365 implementation project. Rather than treating governance as an afterthought, it's integrated into the planning process to ensure the Microsoft 365 environment is set up for success from day one.

In the governance-first model, organizations carefully review governance decisions early in the deployment to understand the complete environment — business, regulatory, legal, and compliance objectives — and plan an iterative solution that optimizes for all outcomes, balancing risks with benefits.  

Planning for the Entire M365 Governance Lifecycle

Your governance plan needs to account for every stage of the Microsoft 365 lifecycle. That way, your priorities, processes, and tooling can all be revisited at each juncture to ensure the best results.

• Start-of-Life Governance: This phase focuses on establishing policies and procedures for creating new tenants, user groups, and content. It involves defining naming conventions, setting up approval processes, and implementing templates to ensure consistency.  
• Mid-Cycle Continuous Governance: During this phase, ongoing monitoring and management are crucial. This includes regularly reviewing and updating access permissions, ensuring compliance with data retention policies, and monitoring for inactive or unused resources.  
• End-of-Life Governance: This final phase deals with the proper handling of outdated or unnecessary content and workspaces. End-of-life governance ensures that sensitive information is not left in abandoned tenants, helping maintain a clean and efficient environment.

How to Create a Governance Plan for Microsoft 365

Creating a governance plan for Microsoft 365 involves a systematic process to ensure your organization's data is secure, compliant, and optimized for productivity. Here's a high-level overview of the steps:

1. Define Goals and Priorities: Align your governance plan with your organization's business goals, priorities, and compliance requirements. Consider factors like data security, user productivity, and cost management.
2. Assess Current State: Review your existing policies, processes, and Microsoft 365 environment to identify gaps and areas for improvement. Understand the capabilities and limitations of Microsoft 365 services.
3. Engage Stakeholders: Involve key stakeholders from IT, compliance, legal, and business units to gather requirements and ensure buy-in. Identify your biggest users of collaboration features and understand their needs.
4. Develop Policies: Create clear, concise policies covering areas like data classification, retention, sharing, access control, and acceptable use. Balance security and compliance with user productivity.
5. Configure Controls: Implement governance policies using Microsoft 365 features and settings. Leverage tools like sensitivity labels, data loss prevention, retention policies, and conditional access.
6. Train Users: Educate users on governance policies and best practices. Provide guidance on how to use Microsoft 365 tools effectively and compliantly. Reinforce training with ongoing communication.
7. Monitor and Enforce: Regularly monitor compliance with governance policies using Microsoft 365 reporting and auditing tools. Address violations and update policies as needed.
8. Review and Adapt: Continuously review and update your governance plan as business needs, regulations, and Microsoft 365 capabilities evolve. Regularly assess effectiveness and make improvements.

Collaboration Governance for Microsoft 365

Microsoft often (rightfully) touts Office 365 as the "best choice for collaboration". But without the right policies in place to enable smooth and secure collaboration internally and externally, things can quickly take a wrong turn. Collaboration governance plays a vital role in managing Microsoft 365 users' access to resources, by enforcing business standards and safeguarding sensitive information within the larger ecosystem.

What Is Collaboration Governance?

Collaboration governance in Microsoft 365 refers to the set of policies, processes, and controls that dictate how an organization's users interact with the various tools and services within the platform. It encompasses the management of user access, data security, compliance with industry regulations and internal policies, and the overall efficiency of collaboration workflows.

In March 2023, Proofpoint showed the Microsoft 365 community how easily hackers can compromise a Teams admin account through a phishing scam that impersonated a legitimate Teams meeting invite. Using the stolen admin credentials, the attackers created a malicious Power App that appeared as a file share in Teams. When users attempted to access the fake file share, the app harvested their login details.  

This is just one example of how collaboration features in Microsoft 365 can be leveraged by hackers to gain entry into your system unless proper rules are enforced. The underlying concept of collaboration governance is to strike a balance between empowering users to work productively and maintaining control over the organization's data and resources. Without proper governance, companies face risks such as data leakage, non-compliance with regulations, and the proliferation of shadow IT, where users adopt unauthorized tools that pose security threats.

Elements of M365 Collaboration Governance

Collaboration governance in Microsoft 365 covers several key areas:

• Microsoft 365 Groups Governance: This involves managing the creation, lifecycle, and access controls for Microsoft 365 Groups, which are the foundation for collaboration across apps like Teams, SharePoint, and Planner.
• Microsoft 365 Identity Governance: Identity governance ensures that the right users have access to the right resources at the right time. It includes managing user provisioning, access reviews, and privileged identity management.
• Governance in Microsoft Teams: Teams governance covers aspects such as team creation, naming conventions, guest access, data retention policies, and app permissions to maintain a secure and organized collaboration environment.
• Governance in Microsoft SharePoint: SharePoint governance involves managing site creation, permissions, content policies, information architecture, and data lifecycle to ensure effective content management and sharing.
• Governance in Microsoft OneDrive: OneDrive governance manages personal storage and sharing settings, data retention policies, and sync controls to protect individual work files and ensure adherence to data handling standards.

A Checklist for Microsoft 365 Collaboration Governance

To develop a comprehensive collaboration governance plan for Microsoft 365, follow this checklist:

Or, you can download a printable version of the Microsoft 365 Collaboration Governance checklist.

Microsoft 365 Governance in a Self-Service Environment

Having a self-service governance model for Microsoft 365 stands in contrast with the typical centralized model.  

Microsoft 365 governance in a self-service environment refers to the policies, processes, and controls that guide how users interact with and manage their own Microsoft 365 workspaces, such as Teams, SharePoint sites, and OneDrive folders. It’s necessary because while self-service empowers users and boosts productivity, it can also lead to sprawl, inconsistencies, and security risks if not properly governed.

On the contrary, a centralized model promotes tighter security measures. However, it can quickly become expensive and slow down business. Below are some key things to consider when weighing self-service governance vs. centralized governance.

Pros of Self-Service M365 Governance

• Increased user autonomy and productivity as employees can create the workspaces they need.
• Reduced IT burden and costs as automated provisioning frees up IT resources.
• Improved user satisfaction and adoption of Microsoft 365 tools.
• Faster decision-making and innovation as bottlenecks are removed.

Cons of Self-Service M365 Governance

• Potential for shadow IT and security risks if workspaces are not configured properly.
• Lack of standardization and consistency in workspace design and naming.
• Increased sprawl and overprovisioning, leading to higher costs and complexity.
• Difficulty maintaining control and compliance without proper guardrails in place.

Self-Governance Best Practices for Microsoft 365

• Establish clear policies and guidelines for workspace creation, naming, guest access, and acceptable use.
• Implement security and compliance controls like sensitivity labels, data loss prevention (DLP), and conditional access.
• Define provisioning processes with approval workflows, templates, and automated lifecycle management to ensure consistency and prevent sprawl.
• Educate and train users on governance policies, security best practices, and effective use of Microsoft 365 self-service features.
• Monitor and audit self-service activities using Microsoft 365 reporting and third-party tools to identify risks and enforce policies.
• Regularly review and adapt governance policies as needs and capabilities evolve.
• Leverage automation and tools like ShareGate to simplify governance management at scale.
• Involve key stakeholders from IT, security, compliance, and business units in governance planning.
• Balance user empowerment with appropriate guardrails to reap the benefits of self-service while mitigating risks

Enforcing a Microsoft 365 Governance Plan

Enforcing a Microsoft 365 governance plan means ensuring that the policies, procedures, and controls you've established are consistently followed across your organization.  

But, Microsoft 365 offers more than 18 separate admin interfaces and 5,000+ configurations for managing and optimizing all the different applications within your environment. With this kind of sprawl, it can be very tricky to make sure that all your policies are implemented consistently throughout each application and tenant.

You need a clear enforcement strategy to mitigate risks, maintain compliance, and ensure the efficient use of Microsoft 365 resources. Without it, you may face issues like data breaches, non-compliance with regulations, and the proliferation of shadow IT.

To enforce your governance plan:

• Implement technical controls. Use Microsoft 365's built-in features like sensitivity labels, data loss prevention (DLP), and conditional access policies to enforce your governance policies automatically.
• Educate and train users. Provide regular training to ensure users understand and adhere to governance policies. Reinforce training with Microsoft-provided resources and your own organization-specific guidance.
• Monitor and audit. Regularly monitor compliance using Microsoft 365's reporting and auditing tools. Address violations promptly and adapt policies as needed.
• Assign clear roles and responsibilities. Ensure that everyone understands their part in maintaining governance, from IT admins to end-users.
• Regularly review and update. As your business needs and Microsoft 365 capabilities evolve, review and update your governance plan to ensure it remains effective.

Communicating on Microsoft 365 Governance

Communicating your Microsoft 365 governance plan is essential to ensure that everyone in your organization understands and follows the policies and procedures you've established. Effective communication helps drive adoption, mitigate risks, and foster a culture of compliance.

Traditional governance communication often involved long, complex documents that were rarely read or understood. To effectively communicate your governance plan:

• Embed governance in your solutions. Use Microsoft 365 features like sensitivity labels to make governance an integral part of your users' workflow.
• Deliver guidance as a site, not a document. Create a dedicated Microsoft 365 Adoption Center in SharePoint to provide easy-to-consume guidance and best practices for different scenarios.
• Use multiple communication channels. Leverage a mix of email, intranet posts, training sessions, and in-app guidance to reinforce your governance message.
• Tailor communication to different audiences. Provide role-specific guidance for IT admins, end-users, and executives to ensure relevance and clarity.
• Make it engaging and interactive. Use visuals, videos, and quizzes to make governance communication more engaging and memorable.
• Focus on ongoing refinement and training: As the nature of Microsoft 365’s tools and applications evolves, your training programs should evolve too.

Scaling Your Microsoft 365 Governance

As your M365 organization grows and evolves, you will need to scale your governance to keep pace with changing needs and challenges. Scaling governance means adapting your policies, processes, and controls to manage a larger, more complex environment effectively.

Without scalable governance, you may face issues like sprawl, inconsistencies, and difficulty enforcing policies across a growing number of users, teams, and sites. Scaling is needed to maintain control, mitigate risks, and ensure the continued success of your Microsoft 365 deployment.

Burke Porter Group (BPG) is a manufacturing-focused holding company that grew rapidly through mergers and acquisitions, expanding to over 1,600 Microsoft 365 users across 16 brands in 14 countries. With the rapid expansion came challenges in managing Microsoft 365 usage, particularly with the adoption of Teams and SharePoint.  

With CoreView, enabled BPG was able to delegate admin rights to regional IT teams based on their specific needs, enabling teams to manage day-to-day tasks like password resets and user management without help from the HQ. At the same time, CoreView's RBAC capabilities allowed BPG's central IT to maintain ultimate control and oversight.  

When your organization expands, having access to the right partners and toolsets can make a huge and lasting difference. By balancing the right level of automation with centralized human oversight, you can expand your cloud ecosystem without having to deal with uncontrolled sprawl.

Native Governance Capabilities in M365

Microsoft 365 offers a range of native capabilities to help you govern your environment, including:

• Azure AD Access Reviews: Regularly review and manage user access to ensure only the right people have access to the right resources.
• Microsoft 365 Groups Expiration: Automatically expire inactive groups to prevent sprawl and reduce risk.
• Sensitivity Labels: Classify and protect sensitive data across your environment with labels that enforce encryption, sharing restrictions, and more.
• Data Loss Prevention (DLP): Prevent the accidental sharing of sensitive information with policies that detect, monitor, and block risky sharing.
• Conditional Access: Control access to Microsoft 365 resources based on user, device, location, and risk factors.

While these native capabilities provide a strong foundation for governance, they may not always be enough to fully address your organization's needs and requirements. Limitations can include lack of granular controls, limited automation options, and the need for manual configuration and maintenance.

Automating Your Microsoft 365 Governance

To overcome the limitations of native governance tools and streamline your governance processes, automating key functions with third-party services can be a game-changer. Automation allows you to apply policies consistently, reduce manual effort, and govern at scale.  

When choosing automation tools, look for solutions that:

• Integrate seamlessly with Microsoft 365: Ensure the tool works natively with your existing Microsoft 365 environment and doesn't require complex setup or maintenance.
• Provide granular controls: Look for tools that offer more granular governance options than native capabilities, allowing you to tailor policies to your specific needs.
• Offer pre-built templates and policies: Choose solutions that provide ready-to-use governance templates and policies based on best practices, reducing setup time and effort.
• Support multiple Microsoft 365 services: Opt for tools that can govern across multiple Microsoft 365 services (e.g., Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive) from a single interface.
• Provide robust reporting and analytics: Ensure the tool offers detailed reporting and analytics to track governance effectiveness and identify areas for improvement.

By carefully selecting and implementing the right automation tools, you can significantly enhance your Microsoft 365 governance capabilities and free up IT resources to focus on higher-value tasks.

Easiest Way to Scale Governance in Microsoft 365

As your Microsoft 365 environment grows in complexity, manually enforcing governance policies becomes increasingly challenging and time-consuming. This is where CoreView comes in.

As the leading Microsoft 365 management platform that helps organizations automate governance at scale, CoreView is purpose-built for Microsoft 365, with deep expertise in simplifying (and securing) complex environments and driving efficiency through automation. The platform provides a unified management layer with an intuitive web-based interface, a powerful workflow engine, and pre-built governance templates that enable IT teams to quickly identify and remediate compliance issues.

With more than 25 million managed Microsoft 365 licenses under its belt, CoreView has helped organizations like Asmodee, Mateco, Middleby, Save the Children, and the City University of New York streamline their M365 environment. Whether you're looking to manage and govern license allocation, streamline user provisioning and offboarding, enforce policies across applications, or maintain continuous compliance, we have the tools and expertise to help you govern Microsoft 365 at scale.  

To see firsthand how CoreView can help you master Microsoft 365 governance, request a demo today.  

Or check out additional resources for your Microsoft 365 governance journey:

• Free Guide to Microsoft 365 Governance Best Practices that dives deep into technical best practices across identities, security, SharePoint, Teams, and more.
• Microsoft 365 CIS Security Checklist to align Microsoft 365 with CIS best practices.
• How to Automate Entra Configurations for templating your ideal configurations, preventing drift, and rolling back in case of a disaster.

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