Rules like Naming Conventions and Lifecycles make a great base for fostering well-structured workspaces; however, if you're after truly effective governance, you should implement the 4-eyed principle and set up a thorough Approval Process.
With Teams Manager, when a user decides to submit a new request for a Team, they'll have to fill out the Metadata fields you've created. Depending on your Policy Setup, certain Metadata might apply a specific Policy Package to the Team.
Once the user's request is finalized, the Admin (or the Approver Group) receives an Adaptive Card via the Teams Manager Bot and is prompted to review the request.
During this review, they have the opportunity to change Team details or leave comments for the original requester to resolve.
Once the request is approved, the Admin (or a member of the Approver Group) is notified about the successful creation of the Team in question.
Let's take a step-by-step walkthrough of the Approval Process to fully understand how this procedure applies to real-world workflows.
✅ Approving Requests
Navigate to the Requests tab in Teams Manager to get started.
You'll be presented with a list of all Active Requests on your tenant.
Click on the requested Team's name to get a summary of the information specified by the user.
You'll end up on the Update request pop-up, where you can change details specified by the user, add Owners and Members, and edit Metadata fields.
Clicking Next will display all of the Team characteristics, including Basic info, Metadata, and Policy. Click on Approve to actually create the requested Team.
Once the request has been approved, the newly created Team will be added to your tenant, complete with all of the information and rules that you saw on the final review screen.
👥 Creating Approver Groups
An Approver Group is a collection of individuals within your organization who can approve new Teams. For instance, you can create a "Marketing Department" approver group and allow people in it to approve new Marketing Spaces.
Navigate to Settings > Approval to get started.
You'll notice that there's already a Default approver group present; you (the Admin) will be its sole member. Members of the Default approver group get to approve all requests, as opposed to other Approver Groups, which have to be a part of the corresponding Policy.
Click on + Add a group to create a new Approver Group.
Specify a Name and a Description for your Approver Group and add the people who will be able to approve Teams from now on. Once done, click on Create to save your group.
Simply creating a group won't automatically grant its members the ability to Approve Teams; you need to specify this newly created Approver Group in a Policy Package.
Navigate to Settings > Policies and click on the Policy you'd like to edit. If you don't have a Policy yet, you can just create one.
Once you're on the Edit the policy package screen, simply change the Default approver group to the one you just created and make sure to update both the Policy and Execution when prompted.
🔒 Set Security Groups as Approvers
Teams Manager also allows you to base your Approver Group on an existing Microsoft Entra Security Group.
Navigate to Settings > Approval > + Add a group, specify the desired Name and Description, and type in the name of the preferred Security Group into the Approver box.
Selecting a Microsoft Entra Security Group in the Approver box will automatically add all of its members to the newly created Approver Group.
🏅 Final Results
Once your Approver Group is active, all of its members will be able to approve Teams that fall under the corresponding Policy.
When a user decides to submit a Team Request, you (or the Approver Group) will receive a notification in Teams Manager and will be able to view all the details they've specified before actually approving it.
💡 Additional Tips & Tricks
If you want to allow users to approve any group as opposed to specific ones covered by a policy, you can just add them to the default approver group, and they'll have access to all new requests.
👣 Next Steps
Now that you've created an Approver Group, you can start experimenting with Access Reviews.
We recommend starting here:
⛑️ Need more help?
Get further assistance with Teams Manager through our support chat widget within the app, or reach out to us at support@solutions2share.com.