Guide G11 Collaboration governance
A broken file link is a ticket. Unowned SharePoint and Teams sprawl is a governance gap.
External sharing links, guest accounts, and duplicate Teams sites accumulate quietly until nobody can say who can see what. That is a different problem from one person's file, mailbox, or channel not working today. This guide separates the two and names the artifact a governance conversation should produce.
G11 · Entry 01 Three different collaboration jobs
Start with what is actually missing an owner.
One person can't reach a file or channel
Bring the user, resource, tool, and error. This is a support ticket, not a permissions audit.
No one can say who has access to what
External sharing, guest accounts, and site sprawl need a named, recurring owner and a review cadence.
Leadership wants a sharing and retention review
A bounded review can map current exposure before deciding what ongoing management should look like.
G11 · Entry 02 Decision matrix
Match the situation to the right first route.
| Observed need | Best first route | Useful evidence | Boundary |
|---|---|---|---|
| A mailbox, file, or channel is unreachable | Support | User, resource, error, timing | Not a permissions audit |
| External sharing and guest access are unreviewed | Managed IT or a bounded review | Sharing settings, guest count, last review date | Not an instant fix |
| Teams and SharePoint sites multiply with no owners | Managed IT | Site count, named owners, lifecycle policy status | Not a one-time cleanup guarantee |
| Retention and deletion rules are undefined | Managed IT or a bounded review | Current retention settings, applicable requirement | Not legal advice on retention obligations |
G11 · Entry 03 Prepare the brief
Bring these facts to a collaboration-governance conversation.
- Which services are in scope: Exchange, SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, or all four.
- Whether external sharing and guest access are currently allowed.
- How many Teams and SharePoint sites exist, and who owns each one.
- Whether retention or deletion rules exist for mail and files.
- Any past incident involving oversharing or a departed employee's data.
- The artifact needed: a permissions map, a retention policy, or ongoing management.
G11 · Entry 04 What this covers
What this guide covers, and what it does not.
- In scope
- Separating a blocked-access ticket from a governance gap, and the permissions-map or retention artifact a next step should produce.
- Out of scope
- E-discovery or litigation-hold execution, and legal advice on retention obligations.
- Possible next decision
- Recurring Microsoft 365 management, or a bounded permissions and retention review.
G11 Next
Give SharePoint and Teams sprawl a named owner.
Compare ongoing Microsoft 365 management routes, or read the fuller Microsoft 365 guide for the tenant-wide picture.