A Microsoft 365 Group is a cross-application membership service that enables teams to collaborate effectively and securely by establishing a single team identity and a single set of permissions to a collection of Microsoft 365 resources.
The Mason Microsoft 365 Group Usage Guidelines ("Guidelines") outline the roles and responsibilities, policies, and processes that guide, direct, and govern the management and operation of Microsoft 365 groups ("Groups"). The Guidelines must be considered when creating, managing, using, deleting, or archiving Microsoft3 65 Groups.
The Guidelines are reviewed and/or updated regularly by Information Technology Services (ITS) to ensure alignment with any changes to Microsoft 365 service offerings. All users are responsible for ensuring that they are up to date with the Guidelines and Microsoft 365 service offering.
Scope:
The guidelines apply to all Mason faculty and staff, students, contractors, affiliates, or individuals using Mason IT resources. The guidelines also apply to external consultants and any other guests or external users. The guidelines apply to all Microsoft 365 Groups created in Microsoft Teams, Planner, Yammer, or any other application using Microsoft 365 Group membership service.
Applicable University Policy governs the use of Microsoft 365 services.
Microsoft 365 Groups vs. Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is a team collaboration application fully integrated with Microsoft 365 and helps teams work more quickly and efficiently. It supports group-based chats, file sharing, and online meetings and is fully integrated with Microsoft 365 Email and Calendar, OneDrive, Planner, and OneNote. Teams build on the functionality of Groups, and a Teams site should only be created where there is a need to collaborate and communicate between multiple users. A Teams site should never be created for individual use. OneDrive should be used when working on individual documents or collaborating with a small number of people (e.g., three or fewer) Microsoft Teams Essential Training Course.
Group Capabilities
Users who create Groups via Microsoft Teams or other Microsoft 365 applications are automatically assigned owner privileges for the Group they create. An owner can add or remove members and guests, approve requests from members to add a guest, change the display names of their Groups, update their Groups description, and change their Groups settings. Owners can create Teams from existing Groups, see Create a team from an existing group.
Group Owner Responsibilities
- Reading, understanding, and adhering to the Guidelines, including governing University policies, standards, and best practices
- Ensuring that their Groups are named appropriately, descriptions are provided, privacy settings are appropriately set, and their Groups are classified according to George Mason Data Stewardship Policy
- Managing access to their Groups
- Ensuring that their Groups have at least two active owners and designating a new owner when they leave Mason
- Ensuring that that access is reviewed regularly and revoked if it is no longer needed or warranted
- Deleting their Groups when they are no longer needed
- Securing content and ensuring that University Records are managed per George Mason Records Management Policy
Group members' Responsibilities
Reading, understanding, and adhering to the Guidelines, including governing George Mason University policies, standards, and best practices.
Data Retention and Removal
- Groups' owners are responsible for maintaining appropriate control to guard against unauthorized access, modification or deletion, and inappropriate use or disclosure of records.
- In accordance with George Mason University Records Management Policy, information Custodians must retain and dispose of records per George Mason University Record Retention policy. If you require assistance before deletion or transferring records out of Group's shared space, contact University Records Management.
Teams & Groups Naming Convention
Be specific when creating new Microsoft Teams and apply the naming conventions outlined below. The goal is to empower end-users to use self-service to create Microsoft Teams sites and Groups while maintaining a naming convention for reporting and tracking purposes. It is recommended to use the standard abbreviation for faculty, school, department, or association (e.g., HR, ITS, etc.).
Important: All teams will automatically have a "-GRP" extension in their name. This cannot be changed. Additionally, if you have a business use case for a restricted word in your Team's name, contact ITS Support to request the use of the restricted word.
Faculty & Staff Naming Convention Guidelines
A department Microsoft Teams site is defined as a site that is created for use by one department, and the format is defined as follows: Department Sub-Department Purpose
Explanation:
Department: Start with the Department name using a commonly known abbreviation (e.g., HR (Human Resources), ITS (Information Technology Services), CHHS (College of Health and Human Services)
Sub-department: Use commonly known abbreviation (e.g., PR (Payroll), EIS (Enterprise Infrastructure Services), SW (Social Work)
Purpose: Keep it short but write a description that makes the purpose clear
Examples:
HR PR Team Collaboration
ITS EIS Identity Access Management
CHHS SW Behavioral Health workspace
Students Naming Convention Guidelines
A student Teams site is defined as a site that is created for use by students. The format is defined as follows: Subject Area Course Term Project/Assignment Number
Explanation:
Subject Area: Use subject area abbreviation as classified in the course catalog (e.g., College of)
Course: Course/Catalog Number as classified in the course catalog
Term: Term and year abbreviation
Project/Assignment Number: Project/Assignment Number as found in the syllabus
Examples:
ASTR A03 FALL21 Project 1
ACCT 203 SPRING21 Assignment 2
Student Organization Naming Convention Guidelines
The format for student organization Teams site is defined as follows: SO Organization Name
Explanation:
Add SO (Student Organization) at the beginning of Teams name to distinguish the Team as a student organization, then the student organization's name. Add a brief description that makes the purpose clear.
Examples:
SO GMU Esports
SO Accounting Society at Mason
Privacy Settings
When you are creating a team, you can choose one of the two types of privacy settings:
- Private Group: Only approved members and guests can access Teams Site or Group
- Public Group: Access is open to all Microsoft 365 users, including staff, faculty, contractors, affiliate, and students, and invited guests
Inactive Groups
Groups that have been inactive for 365 days may be deleted by ITS. Group owners will be notified before deletion, but if no action is taken to renew the Groups, they will be deleted. If a Group is deleted, all records associated with the Group's shared space will be deleted.
Ownerless groups
Ownerless or orphan Groups may be deleted by ITS. ITS will notify Group members before deletion, but the Groups will be deleted if no response is received. If a Group is deleted, all the records associated with the Group's shared space will be deleted as well.
Collaborating with External Users (Guest Access)
If you or your Group perform work that involves sharing documents or collaborating directly with external users, including vendors, contractors, consultants, researchers, clients, or customers outside of George Mason University, you can use Guest Access to grant them access to conversations, calendar invitations, and specific files or folders associated with Team's site. Guests can participate in Groups' conversations, receive and respond to calendar invitations, and access the Groups' files.
For more information, refer to:
Group owners are responsible for ensuring that only those that need access are added as guests and that guests are removed when access is no longer needed or warranted.