A practical Microsoft 365 governance checklist

1. Give critical resources an owner

Begin with a bounded set of sites, applications, flows and data stores. Record the business process, the business owner, the technical owner and the people who rely on it. Identify which resources would interrupt important work if they failed.

The checklist is a W.I.S.E. operating framework, not a compliance certification. Use it to find decisions that are missing. A useful first deliverable is a prioritized list of ownership gaps, not an attempt to inventory every file in the tenant.

2. Verify access at the resource and data layers

For applications, Microsoft explicitly calls out the need to manage permissions for underlying data sources and dependent resources in addition to sharing the app. Include those layers in the review. Microsoft Learn: Share a canvas app

Record who can read, contribute, approve and administer. Then test a representative account for each role. Ask who approves an access change and how access is reviewed when someone changes responsibility.

The evidence should be specific enough that a future administrator can understand why the access model exists. A screen that appears to hide information is not, on its own, an access review.

3. Make environment and connector decisions explicit

Microsoft's environment strategy guidance addresses how Power Platform resources are organized for different purposes and lifecycle stages. Document where development, testing and production belong in the client's context. Microsoft Learn: Develop an environment strategy

Microsoft describes data policies as controls over permitted connectors and connector combinations. Review those policies alongside the environment strategy, with a documented route for exceptions. Microsoft Learn: Implement a data policy strategy

Do not introduce a policy merely because its name sounds protective. Identify the risk, understand the effect on existing solutions and test changes before applying them broadly. Available features and governance choices depend on the environment and licensing.

4. Define the information and lifecycle

For each important process, identify its authoritative records, required metadata, status definitions and supporting evidence. Distinguish active work from historical information and agree who can correct a record.

Record the applicable retention requirements supplied by the client, then determine how archiving or retirement will respect them. Do not substitute a convenient deletion schedule for an approved information-management decision.

A practical check is to follow one request from creation through closure and later retrieval. The process should still make sense after the original requestor or builder has moved on.

5. Make changes testable and recoverable

Define who can change the solution, where a change is tested, who accepts it and how the release is documented. Keep a record of dependencies and known limitations so routine updates do not rely on memory.

A test set should include normal work, exceptions, representative permissions and realistic data volume. The release note should identify what changed, what was checked and what an owner should do when a problem is reported.

Recovery expectations also need a clear owner. Determine which actions belong to the platform administrator, the custom-solution maintainer and any other provider rather than assuming one team controls every layer.

6. Turn the checklist into an operating rhythm

• Maintain a critical-resource inventory with accountable owners.
• Review high-risk access and unresolved ownership gaps.
• Track changes and exceptions in a visible decision log.
• Keep administrator notes aligned with the production solution.
• Agree when obsolete resources can be archived or retired.
• Revisit the design when volume, users or requirements change.

Choose a review cadence that matches the risk and rate of change rather than an arbitrary calendar ritual. The meeting should resolve decisions, not simply restate that documentation is missing.

W.I.S.E. can scope a governance assessment around one solution portfolio or a wider Microsoft 365 environment. Start with the resources that matter most, make responsibilities explicit and build on practices that the client can actually sustain.