What is SharePoint governance and why does it matter?
SharePoint governance is the set of policies, procedures, roles, and technical controls that guide how your SharePoint environment is managed, used, and maintained. It covers: who can create sites (site provisioning policy), how content is classified and labeled (information architecture), who owns sites and libraries (ownership model), how long content is retained (retention policy), who can share externally (sharing policy), and how compliance is enforced. Without governance, SharePoint environments accumulate orphaned sites, inconsistent permissions, unclassified sensitive content, and compliance gaps within 12-18 months of deployment. Good governance reduces IT support burden, accelerates eDiscovery, and satisfies auditors.
How do I prevent site sprawl in SharePoint Online?
Site sprawl occurs when users create unlimited sites with no lifecycle governance. Prevention strategies: (1) Control site creation — limit who can create Microsoft 365 groups/teams/sites via Azure AD group policy; (2) Site request workflow — require users to submit a request through a Power Apps form with justification, primary owner, and expected lifecycle; (3) Site lifecycle policy — sites inactive for 90 days trigger an automated email to the owner requesting confirmation; Microsoft 365 then archives or deletes sites with no response (configurable in SharePoint Admin Center); (4) Hub site architecture — channel site creation into hub-associated sites with consistent navigation and branding; (5) Regular governance reviews — monthly report of new sites, orphaned sites, and storage outliers.
What should be in a SharePoint governance document?
A comprehensive SharePoint governance document covers: (1) Roles and responsibilities — Global Admin, SharePoint Admin, Site Owner, Site Member, Visitor definitions and duties; (2) Site provisioning policy — who can create sites, what approvals are required, what templates are available; (3) Naming conventions — site URLs, team names, document library names, column naming standards; (4) Information architecture — hub site structure, content type taxonomy, managed metadata term groups; (5) External sharing policy — what can be shared, with whom, under what conditions; (6) Retention and records management — retention labels by content type, records declaration, disposition process; (7) Security standards — minimum permission requirements, guest access rules, sensitivity label taxonomy; (8) Site lifecycle — review cadence, archival criteria, deletion process; (9) Support model — who handles site creation requests, permission issues, and technical problems.
How do I manage orphaned SharePoint sites when employees leave?
When a site owner leaves the organization, the site becomes "orphaned" — no active owner to manage permissions, approve access requests, or handle lifecycle decisions. Best practice prevention: require two site owners (primary + backup) at provisioning time. Remediation: (1) PowerShell: Get-SPOSite | Where-Object {$_.Owner -eq ""} identifies orphaned sites; (2) Automated flow: When a user account is disabled in Entra ID, trigger a Power Automate flow that identifies all sites owned by that user, notifies their manager, and requests ownership transfer within 7 days; (3) SharePoint Admin Center: Manually update the site owner (Site Details → Owners); (4) Governance review: Monthly report of sites where primary owner account status is "Disabled."