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No Governance for Microsoft Teams is a failure in IT Leadership

by | Jan 5, 2019 | Blog, Compliance, Office 365 Governance

Microsoft Teams is the solution to all your problems. Users will find it really easy to adopt Microsoft Teams as it is incredibly straightforward to implement. These and other myths are what many CIOs and IT Directors have been told for most of the last year. Unfortunately, this has led many organisations to launch into a full deployment of Microsoft Teams without any thought to governance or adoption.
Governance Microsoft Teams
The reality of many Microsoft Teams deployments we encounter is an ever-growing number of Teams, with duplicate Teams or ones serving very similar purposes. There is often a misunderstanding over the purpose for a Team and lack of ownership when a Team is created. This often leads to users becoming frustrated with Microsoft Teams and the continual growth other tools like Slack.

Who is to Blame?

It is always very convenient to find someone to blame in the IT world, but it is rarely that simple. Microsoft certainly have not helped the situation, spending well over a year promoting Teams before they started talking about governance. The community of speakers around Microsoft Teams is equally guilty of this. We have also encountered some consultancies who are actively promoting a zero governance approach to implementing Microsoft Teams.

Ultimately, it is the responsibility of IT leadership in every organisation to make sure there is an appropriate Microsoft Teams adoption and governance strategy. Whether the deployment of Microsoft Teams is an IT project or not, the IT leadership should be asking the right questions. Rather than blindly copying the latest technological trends, they should be debating whether or not the organisation is sufficiently prepared for Microsoft Teams.

Improving Governance and Adoption

Unfortunately, there is never a simple answer to governance or adoption for Microsoft Teams, Office 365 and IT more generally. Organisations in different sectors will have different security and compliance requirements. There are also differing levels of maturity amongst the users of software like Microsoft Teams.

When planning the approach to adoption and governance for Microsoft Teams, it is about asking the right questions. These can include

  • How will you train your users initially and ongoing?
  • Will this training include covering governance?
  • What are the different roles in a Team and how will you communicate these roles to users?
  • When should a Team be created and who can create them?
  • Are there different types of Microsoft Team and how are they classified?
  • How will avoid information sprawl and manage lifecycle?
  • How will you measure and monitor user adoption?
  • What will be the support model for Microsoft Teams?

This list is not exhaustive of all the potential questions on Microsoft Teams governance and adoption. However, this selection of questions should make you rethink about an ungoverned Microsoft Teams deployment.

IT Leadership need to ensure they take the right approach to any Microsoft Teams project. It is essential that the correct project team is put in place to implement Microsoft Teams, including a project manager. There must be a clear objective of the project, with defined success criteria. Experienced external expertise should be sought, to ask the right questions about adoption and governance.

Microsoft Teams Provisioning

Your first step in the right direction is to think about the appropriate tools required for successful governance and adoption for Microsoft Teams. ProvisionPoint 365 provides organisations with a comprehensive solution for Microsoft Teams provisioning, governance and lifecycle management. If you would like to see a Microsoft Teams provisioning demo, please get in contact.