Remote work calls for leveraging your Office 365 license to use Microsoft Teams – but IT is unsure about best practices for governance and permissions. Moreover, IT has few resources to help train end users with Teams best practices.
Microsoft Teams is not a standalone app. Successful utilization of Teams occurs when conceived in the broader context of how it integrates with Office 365. Understanding how information flows between Teams, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive for Business, for instance, will aid governance with permissions, information storage, and file sharing.
Use Info-Tech’s Microsoft Teams Cookbook to successfully implement and use Teams. This cookbook includes recipes for:
Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:
Understand best practices for governance of the Teams creation process and Teams rollout.
Get end users on board with this series of how-tos and common use cases for Teams.
Executive Brief
Section 1: Teams for IT
Section 2: Teams for End Users
Remote work calls for leveraging your Office 365 license to utilize Teams – but IT is unsure about best practices for governance and permissions.
Without a framework or plan for governing the rollout of Teams, IT risks overlooking secure use of Teams, the phenomenon of “teams sprawl,” and not realizing how Teams integrates with Office 365 more broadly.
Teams needs to be rolled out quickly, but IT has few resources to help train end users with Teams best practices.
With teams, channels, chats, meetings, and live events to choose from, end users may get frustrated with lack of guidance on how to use Teams’ many capabilities.
Use Info-Tech’s Microsoft Teams Cookbook to successfully implement and utilize Teams. This cookbook includes recipes for:
Successful utilization of Teams occurs when conceived in the broader context of how it integrates with Office 365. Understanding how information flows between Teams, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive for Business, for instance, will aid governance with permissions, information storage, and file sharing.
No initial governance for team creation can lead to “teams sprawl.” While Teams was built to allow end users’ creativity to flow in creating teams and channels, this can create problems with a cluttered interface and keeping track of information. To prevent end-user dissatisfaction here, IT’s initial Teams rollout should offer a basic structure for end users to work with first, limiting early teams sprawl.
Knowing how Teams integrates with other Office 365 apps will help with rolling out sensitivity labels to protect important information being accidentally shared in Teams. Of course, technology only does so much – proper processes to train and hold people accountable for their actions with data sharing must be implemented, too.
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Section 1 Teams for IT |
Section 2 Teams for end users |
From determining prerequisites to engaging end users.
IT needs to be prepared to manage other dependent services when rolling out Teams. See the figure below for how Teams integrates with these other Office 365 applications.
Please note: To appeal to the majority of Info-Tech’s members, this blueprint refers to Teams in the context of Office 365 Enterprise licenses.
You will already have at least one global administrator from setting up Office 365.
Global administrators have almost unlimited access to settings and most of the data within the software, so Microsoft recommends having only two to four IT and business owners responsible for data and security.
Configure multifactor authentication for your dedicated Office 365 global administrator accounts and set up two-step verification.
Once you have organized your global administrators, you can designate your other administrators with “just-enough” access for managing Teams. There are four administrator roles:
Teams Service Administrator | Manage the Teams service; manage and create Microsoft 365 groups. |
Teams Communications Administrator | Manage calling and meetings features with Teams. |
Teams Communications Support Engineer | Troubleshoot communications issues within Teams using the advanced troubleshooting toolset. |
Teams Communications Support Specialist | Troubleshoot communications issues using Call Analytics. |
There are three prerequisites before Teams can be rolled out:
Microsoft then recommends the following checklist to optimize your Teams utilization:
For online support and walkthroughs, utilize Advisor for Teams. This assistant can be found in the Teams admin center.
You can create and manage Teams through the Teams PowerShell module and the Teams admin center. Only the global administrator and Teams service administrator have full administrative capabilities in this center.
Governance over team creation intends to prevent “teams sprawl” – the phenomenon whereby end users create team upon team without guidance. This creates a disorganized interface, with issues over finding the correct team and sharing the right information.
Prevent teams sprawl by painting the first picture for end users:
For smaller organizations that are project-driven, organize teams by projects. For larger organizations with established, siloed departments, organize by department; projects within departments can become channels.
Teams does not integrate with SharePoint Server.
Governance of Teams is important because of how tightly it integrates with other Office 365 apps, including SharePoint Online.
A poor rollout of Teams will have ramifications in SharePoint. A good rollout will optimize these apps for the organization.
Teams and SharePoint integrate in the following ways:
End users should be encouraged to integrate their teams and channels with existing SharePoint folders and, where no folder exists, to create one in SharePoint first before then attaching a team to it.
Within the Teams admin center, the global or Teams service administrator can manage Teams policies.
Typical Teams policies requiring governance include:
Chosen policies can be either applied globally or assigned to specific users.
If organizations need to share sensitive information within the bounds of a certain group, private channels help protect this data. However, inviting users into that channel will enable them to see all shared history.
Within the security and compliance center, the global or Teams service administrator can set external and guest access.
External access (federation) – turned on by default.
Guest access – turned off by default.
If guest access is enabled, it is subject to Azure AD and Office 365 licensing and service limits. Guests will have no access to the following, which cannot be changed:
Within the security and compliance center, you can allow users to add sensitivity labels to their teams that can prevent external and guest access.
To reduce the number of unused teams and channels, or delete information permanently, the global or Teams service administrator can implement an Office 365 group expiration and archiving policy through the Teams admin center.
If a team has an expiration policy applied to it, the team owner will receive a notification for team renewal 30 days, 15 days, and 1 day before the expiry date. They can renew their team at any point within this time.
Alternatively, teams and their channels (including private) can be archived. This will mean that all activity for the team ceases. However, you can still add, remove, and update roles of the members.
Retention policies can be created and managed in the Microsoft 365 Compliance Center or the security and compliance center PowerShell cmdlets. This can be applied globally or to specific users.
By default, information shared through Teams is retained forever.
However, setting up retention policies ensures data is retained for a specified time regardless of what happens to that data within Teams (e.g. user deletes).
To prevent external or guest users accessing and deleting sensitive data, Teams is able to block this content when shared by internal users. Ensure this is configured appropriately in your organization:
Please note the following limitations of Teams’ retention and data loss prevention:
Teams has built-in functionality to call any team member within the organization through VoIP.
However, Teams does not automatically connect to the PSTN, meaning that calling or receiving calls from external users is not immediately possible.
Bridging VoIP calls with the PSTN through Teams is available as an add-on that can be attached to an E3 license or as part of an E5 license.
There are two options to enable this capability:
Skype for Business is being retired; Microsoft offers a range of transitions to Teams.
Combine the best transition mode with Info-Tech’s adoption best practices to successfully onboard and socialize Teams.
Skype for Business Online will be retired on July 31, 2021. Choose from the options below to see which transition mode is right for your organization.
Skype for Business On-Premises will be retired in 2024. To upgrade to Teams, first configure hybrid connectivity to Skype for Business Online.
The more that’s left behind in Slack, the easier the transition. As a prerequisite, pull together the following information:
Your Slack service plan will determine what you can and can’t migrate. By default, public channels content can be exported. However, private channels may not be exportable, and a third-party app is needed to migrate Direct Messages.
Once you have set up your teams and channels in Teams, you can programmatically copy files from Slack into the target Teams channel.
Once you have a list of apps and their configurations used in Slack’s workspaces, you can search in Teams’ app store to see if they’re available for Teams.
Slack user identities may not map onto a Microsoft account. This will cause migration issues, such as problems with exporting text content posted by that user.
Follow the migration steps to the right.
Importantly, determine which Slack workspaces and channels should become teams and channels within Teams. Usage statistics from Slack can help pinpoint which workspaces and channels are redundant. This will help IT paint an ordered first picture for new Teams end users. |
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Avoid data-handling violations. Determine what privacy and compliance regulations (if any) apply to the handling, storage, and processing of data during this migration.
Change management is a challenging aspect of implementing a new collaboration tool. Creating a communication and adoption plan is crucial to achieving universal buy-in for Teams.
To start, define SMART objectives and create a goals cascade.
Specific | Measurable | Actionable | Realistic | Time Bound |
Make sure the objective is clear and detailed. | Objectives are `measurable` if there are specific metrics assigned to measure success. Metrics should be objective. | Objectives become actionable when specific initiatives designed to achieve the objective are identified. | Objectives must be achievable given your current resources or known available resources. | An objective without a timeline can be put off indefinitely. Furthermore, measuring success is challenging without a timeline. |
Who, what, where, why? | How will you measure the extent to which the goal is met? | What is the action-oriented verb? | Is this within my capabilities? | By when: deadline, frequency? |
Sample list of stakeholder-specific benefits from improving collaboration
Stakeholder | Driver | Benefits |
Senior Leadership | Resource optimization | Increased transparency into IT operational costs. Better ability to forecast hardware, resourcing costs. |
All employees | Increasing productivity | Apps deployed faster. Issues fixed faster. Easier access to files. Able to work more easily offsite. |
LBU-HR, legal, finance | Mitigating risk | Better able to verify compliance with external regulations. Better understanding of IT risks. |
Service desk | Resource optimization | Able to resolve issues faster. Fewer issues stemming from updates. |
Tier 2 | Increasing productivity | Less time spent on routine maintenance. |
Use these activities to define what pain points stakeholders face and how Teams can directly mitigate those pain points.
(Source: Rationalize Your Collaboration Tools (coming soon), Activities: 3.1C – 3.1D)Deploy Teams over a series of phases. As such, if you are already using Skype for Business, choose one of the coexistence phases to start.
(Source: Rationalize Your Collaboration Tools (coming soon), Tools:GANTT Chart and Marketing Materials, Activities: 3.2A – 3.2B)
Be in control of setting and maintaining expectations. Aligning expectations with reality and the needs of employees will lower onboarding resistance.
Microsoft has a range of training support that can be utilized. From instructor-led training to “Coffee in the Cloud” sessions, leverage all the support you can.
Your organization requires you to retain data and documents for a certain period of time; however, after this period, your organization wishes to delete or archive the data instead of maintaining it indefinitely. Within the timeframe of the retention policy, the admin may be asked to retrieve information that has been requested through a legal channel.
Content type | eDiscoverable | Notes |
Teams chat messages | Yes | Chat messages from chats where guest users are the only participants in a 1:1 or 1:N chat are not e-discoverable. |
Audio recordings | No | |
Private channel messages | Yes | |
Emojis, GIFs, stickers | Yes | |
Code snippets | No | |
Chat links | Yes | |
Reactions (likes, hearts, etc) | No | |
Edited messages | Yes | If the user is on hold, previous versions of edited messages are preserved. |
Inline images | Yes | |
Tables | Yes | |
Subject | Yes | |
Quotes | Yes | Quoted content is searchable. However, search results don’t indicate that the content was quoted. |
Name of channel | No |
E-discovery does not capture audio messages and read receipts in MS Teams.
Since files shared in private channels are stored separately from the rest of a team, follow Microsoft’s directions for how to include private channels in e-discovery. (Source: “Conduct an eDiscovery investigation of content in Microsoft Teams,” Microsoft, 2020.)
A team in your organization needs to work in an ongoing way with someone external to the company. This user needs access to the relevant team’s work environment, but they should not be privy to the goings-on in the other parts of the organization.
This external person needs to be able to:
In order to avoid teams sprawl, organizations may want IT to periodically delete or archive unused teams within the Teams client in order to improve the user interface.
Alternately, if you are using a project-based approach to organizing Teams, you may wish to formalize a process to archive a team once the project is complete.
Remind end users that they can hide teams or channels they do not wish to see in their Teams interface. Knowing a team can be hidden may impact a team owner’s decision to delete it.
Section 1 Teams for IT |
Section 2 Teams for end users |
From Teams how-tos to common use cases for end users.
For any Microsoft Teams newcomer, the differences between teams, channels, and chat can be confusing.
Use Microsoft’s figure (left) to see how these three mediums differ in their role and function.
Team A workspace for a group of collaborative individuals. |
Public Channel A focused area where all members of a team can meet, communicate, and share ideas and content. |
Private Channel Like a public channel but restricted to a subset of team members, defined by channel owner. |
Group Chat Two or more users collected into a common conversation thread. |
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Limits and Administrative Control | ||||
Who can create? | Default setting: All users in an organization can create a team
Maximum 500,000 teams per tenant |
Any member of a team can create a public channel within the team
Maximum 200 public channels per team |
Any member of a team can create a private channel and define its members
Maximum 30 private channels per team |
Anyone |
Who can add members? | Team owner(s); max 5,000 members per team | N/A | Channel owner(s) can add up to 250 members | Anyone can bring new members into the chat (and decide if they can see the previous history) up to 100 members |
Who can delete? | Team owner/admin can delete | Any team member | Channel owner(s) | Anyone can leave a chat but cannot delete chat, but they are never effectively deleted |
Social Context | ||||
Who can see it? | Public teams are indexed and searchable
Private teams are not indexed and are visible only to joined members |
All members of the team can see all public channels. Channels may be hidden from view for the purposes of cleaning up the UI. | Individuals will only see private channels for which they have membership | Only participants in the group chat can see the group chat |
Who can see the content? | Team members can see any content that is not otherwise part of a private channel | All team members | All members of the private channel | Only members of the group chat |
When does a Group Chat become a Channel?
When does a Channel become a Team?
Team A workspace for a group of collaborative individuals. |
Public Channel A focused area where all members of a team can meet, communicate, and share ideas and content. |
Private Channel Like a public channel but restricted to a subset of team members, defined by channel owner. |
Group Chat Two or more users collected into a common conversation thread. |
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Data and Applications | ||||
Where does the content live? | SharePoint: Every team resides in its own SharePoint site | SharePoint: Each team (public and private) has its own folder off the root of the SharePoint site’s repository | SharePoint: Each team (public and private) has its own folder off the root of the SharePoint site’s repository | OneDrive: Files that are shared in a chat are stored in the OneDrive folder of the original poster and shared to the other members |
How does the data persist or be retained? | If a team expires/is deleted, its corresponding SharePoint site and those artifacts are also deleted | Available for 21 days after deletion. Any member of the team can delete a public channel. | The team owner and private channel owner can delete/restore a private channel | Chats are never effectively deleted. They can be hidden to clean up the user interface. |
Video | N/A | Yes, select “Meet now” in channel below text entry box | Yes, select “Meet now” in channel below text entry box | Yes |
Phone calls | N/A | Yes, select “Meet now” in channel below text entry box | Yes, select “Meet now” in channel below text entry box | Yes |
Shared computer audio/screen | N/A | Yes, select “Meet now” in channel below text entry box | Yes, select “Meet now” in channel below text entry box | Yes |
File-sharing | Within channels | Yes. Frequently used/collaborated files can be turned into discrete tab. | Yes. Frequently used/collaborated files can be turned into discrete tab. | Yes |
Wikis | Within channels | Yes | Yes | No |
Whiteboarding | No | No | No | No |
When does a Team become a Channel?
When does a Channel become a Group Chat?
Team owner: The person who creates the team. It is possible for the team owner to then invite other members of the team to become co-owners to distribute administrative responsibilities.
Team members: People who have accepted their invitation to be a part of the team.
NB: Your organization can control who has permission to set up a team. If you can’t set a up a team, contact your IT department.
tab on the left-hand side of the app'. Step 2: 'At the bottom of the app, click
Decide from these two options:
NB: You cannot create a team from an existing group if:
Decide if you want you new team from scratch to be private or public. If you set up a private team, any internal or external user you invite into the team will have access to all team history and files shared.
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Decide from these two options:
NB: You cannot create a team from an existing group if:
Configure your new team settings, including privacy, apps, tabs, and members.
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Add team members |
Remove team members |
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To add a team member, on the right-hand side of the team name, click “More options.” Then, from the drop-down menu, click “Add member.” |
Only team owners can remove a team member. To do so, on the right-hand side of the team name, click “More options.” Then, from the drop-down menu, click “Manage team.” |
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If you’re a team owner, you can then type a name or an email address to add another member to the team. If you’re a team member, typing a name or an email address will send a request to the team owner to consider adding the member. |
Under the “Members” tab, you’ll see a list of the members in the team. Click the “X” at the far right of the member’s name to remove them. Team owners can only be removed if they change their role to team member first. |
On the right-hand side of the team name, click “More options.” Then, from the drop-down menu, click “Add channel.” |
Name your channel, give a description, and set your channel’s privacy. |
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To manage subsequent permissions, on the right-hand side of the channel name, click “More options.” Then, from the drop-down menu, click “Manage channel.” |
Adding and removing members from channels:Only members in a team can see that team’s channels. Setting channel privacy as “standard” means that the channel can be accessed by anyone in a team. Unless privacy settings for a channel are set as “private” (from which the channel creator can choose who can be in that channel), there is no current way to remove members from channels. It will be up to the end user to decide which channels they want to hide. |
Need to find the SharePoint URL?', 'Click |
Hide/unhide teams |
Hide/unhide channels |
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To hide a team, on the right-hand side of the team name, click “More options.” Then, from the drop-down menu, click “Hide.” Hidden teams are moved to the “hidden teams” menu at the bottom of your team list. |
To hide a channel, on the right-hand side of the channel name, click “More options.” Then, from the drop-down menu, click “Hide.” Hidden channels are moved to the “hidden channels” menu at the bottom of your channel list in that team. |
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To unhide a team, click on the “hidden teams” menu. On the right-hand side of the team name, click “More options.” Then, from the drop-down menu, click “Show.” |
To unhide a channel, click on the “hidden channels” menu at the bottom of the team. This will produce a drop-down menu of all hidden channels in that team. Hover over the channel you want to unhide and click “Show.” |
Find/join teams |
Leave teams |
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Click the “Teams” tab on the left-hand side of the app. | At the bottom of the app, click “Join or create a team.” Teams will then suggest a range of teams that you might be looking for. You can join public teams immediately. You will have to request approval to join a private team. |
To leave a team, on the right-hand side of the team name, click “More options.” Then, from the drop-down menu, click “Leave the team.” |
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NB: If the owner of a private team has switched off discoverability, you will have to contact that owner to join that team. | If you can’t immediately see the team, you have two options: either search for the team or enter that team’s code under the banner “Join a team with a code.” | Can I find a channel?
No. To join a channel, you need to first join the team that channel belongs to. Can I leave a channel?No. The most you can do is hide the channel. By default, if you join a team you will have access to all the channels within that team (unless a channel is private, in which case you’ll have to request access to that channel). |
Hide a chat |
Unhide a chat |
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To unhide a chat, search for the hidden person or name of the group chat in the search bar. Click “More options.” Then click “Unhide.” | ||
Leave a chat |
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You can only leave group chats. To do so, click “More options.” Then click “Leave.” |
Teams Meetings: Real-time communication and collaboration between a group, limited to 250 people.
Teams Live Events: designed for presentations and webinars to a large audience of up to 10,000 people, in which attendees watch rather than interact.
Office 365 and Microsoft 365 Licenses |
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I want to: | F1 | F3 | E1 | E3 | E5 | Audio conferencing add-on |
Join a Teams meeting | No license required. Any email address can participate in a Teams meeting. | |||||
Attend a Teams meeting with a dial-in phone number | No license required. Any phone number can dial into a Teams meeting. (Meeting organizers need to have an Audio Conferencing add-on license to send an invite that includes dial-in conferencing.) | |||||
Attend a Teams live event | No license required. Any phone number can dial into a Teams live event. | |||||
Create a Teams meeting for up to 250 attendees | One of these licensing plans | |||||
Create a Teams meeting for up to 250 attendees with a dial-in phone number | One of these licensing plans + Audio Conferencing (Meeting organizers need to have an Audio Conferencing add-on license to send an invite that includes dial-in conferencing.) | |||||
Create a Teams live event for up to 10,000 attendees | One of these licensing plans | |||||
Dial out from a Teams meeting to add someone at their Call me at number | One of these licensing plans + Audio Conferencing (Meeting dial out to a Call me at number requires organizers to have an E5 or Audio Conference add-in license. A dial plan may also be needed.) |
Depending on the use case, end users will have to determine whether they need to hold a meeting or a live event.
Use Microsoft’s table (left) to see what license your organization needs to perform meetings and live events.
(Source: “Admin quick start – Meetings and live events in Microsoft Teams,” Microsoft, 2020.)Ad Hoc Call Direct audio/video call |
Scheduled Meeting | Live Event | |
Limits and Administrative Control | |||
Who can create? | Anyone | Anyone | Anyone, unless altered by admin (permission to create MS Stream events also required if external production tools are used). |
Who can add members? | Anyone in the session. | The meeting organizer can add new attendees to the meeting. | The event creator (the “organizer”) sets attendee permissions and assigns event group roles (“producer” and “presenter”). |
Can external stakeholders attend? | Yes, through email invite. However, collaboration tools are restricted. | Yes, through email invite. However, collaboration tools are restricted. | Public events: yes, through shared invite link.
Org-wide event: yes, if guest/external access granted. |
Who can delete? | Anyone can leave the session. There is no artifact to delete. | The meeting organizer | Any attendee can leave the session.
The organizer can cancel the event. |
Maximum attendees | 100 | 250 | 10,000 attendees and 10 active presenters/producers (250 presenters and producers can be present at the event). |
Social Context | |||
How does the request come in? | Unscheduled.
Notification of an incoming audio or video call. |
Scheduled.
Meeting invite, populated in the calendar, at a scheduled time. |
Meeting only auto-populated in event group’s calendars. Organizer must circulate event invite link to attendees – for instance, by pasting link into an Outlook meeting invite. |
Available Functionality | |||
Screen-sharing | Yes | Yes | Producers and Presenters (through Teams, no third-party app). |
Whiteboard | No | Yes | Yes |
OneNote (for minutes) | Yes (from a member’s OneDrive) | Yes, part of the meeting construct. | No. A Meeting Notes tab is available instead. |
Dedicated chat space | Yes. Derived from a group chat. | Meeting has its own chat room. | The organizer can set up a moderated Q&A (not chat) when creating the event. Only Presenters and Producers can chat. |
Recording | Yes | Yes | Yes. Event can last up to 4 hours. |
When should an Ad Hoc Call become a Scheduled Meeting?
When should a Scheduled Meeting become an Ad Hoc Call?
When should a Live Event be created?
When you host a meeting online with Microsoft Teams, there will always be a chatroom associated with the meeting. While this is a great place for meeting participants to interact, there is one particular downside.
Problem: The never-ending chat. Often the activity in these chatrooms can persist long after the meeting. The chatroom itself becomes, unofficially, a channel. When end users can’t keep up with the deluge of communication, the tools have failed them.
Solution: Adding an existing channel to the meeting. This ensures that discussion activity is already hosted in the appropriate venue for the group, during and after the meeting. Furthermore, it provides non-attendees with a means to catch up on the discussion they have missed.
In section two of this cookbook, we will often refer to this tactic.
Don’t have a channel for the chat session of your online meeting? Perhaps you should!
If your meeting is with a group of individuals that will be collaborating frequently, they may need a workspace that persists beyond the meeting.
Guests can still attend the meeting, but they can’t chat!
If there are attendees in your meeting that do not have access to the channel you select to host the chat, they will not see the chat discussion nor have any ability to use this function.
This may be appropriate in some cases – for example, a vendor providing a briefing as part of a regular team meeting.
However, if there are attendees outside the channel membership that need to see the meeting chat, consider another channel or simply default to not assigning one.
Show device settings. For settings concerning audio, video, and whether viewing is private.
Show meeting notes. Use to take notes throughout the meeting. The notes will stay attached to this event.
Show meeting details. Find meeting information for: a dial-in number, conference ID, and link to join.
Enter full screen.
Show background effects. Choose from a range of video backgrounds to hide/blur your location.
Turn on the captions (preview). Turn on live speech-to-text captions.
Keypad. For dialing a number within the meeting (when enabled as an add-on with E3 or as part of E5).
Start recording. Recorded and saved using Microsoft Stream.
End meeting.
Turn off incoming video. To save network bandwidth, you can decline receiving attendee’s video.
Click “More options” to access the meetings settings.
Screen share. In the tool tray, select “Share” to share your screen. Select particular applications if you only want to share certain information; otherwise, you can share your whole desktop.
System audio share. To share your device’s audio while screen sharing, checkbox the “Include system audio” option upon clicking “Share.”
If you didn’t click that option at the start but now want to share audio during screen share, click the “Include systems audio” option in the tool tray along the top of the screen.
Give/take control of screen share. To give control, click “Give control” in the tool tray along the top of the screen when sharing content. Choose from the drop-down who you would like to give control to. In the same spot, click “Take back control” when required.
To request control, click “Request control” in the same space when viewing someone sharing their content. Click “Release control” once finished.
NB: Anonymous, federated, or guest users are currently not supported to start, view, or ink a whiteboard in a Teams meeting.
No. However, the final whiteboard will be available to all meeting attendees after the meeting, under “Board Gallery” in the Microsoft Whiteboard app. Attendees can then continue to work on the whiteboard after the meeting has ended.
As the organizer, you can invite other people to the event who will be the “producers” or “presenters.” Producers: Control the live event stream, including being able to start and stop the event, share their own and others’ video, share desktop or window, and select layout. Presenters: Present audio, video, or a screen. |
Select who your audience will be for your live event from three options: specified people and groups, the organization, or the public with no sign-in required. Edit the setting for whether you want recording to be available for attendees. Then click “Schedule” to finish. |
When you join the live event as a producer/presenter, nothing will be immediately broadcast. You’ll be in a pre-live state. Decide what content to share and in what order. Along the bottom of the screen, you can share your video and audio, share your screen, and mute incoming attendees. Once your content is ready to share along the bottom of the screen, add it to the screen on the left, in order of viewing. This is your queue – your “Pre-live” state. Then, click “Send now.” This content will now move to the right-hand screen, ready for broadcasting. Once you’re ready to broadcast, click “Start.” Your state will change from “Pre-live” to “Live.” Along the top right of the app will be a tools bar. |
Scenario: Most of your organization’s communication and collaboration occurs within its pre-existing departmental divisions.
Conventional communication channels:
Solution: Determine the best way to organize your organization’s departments in Teams based on its size and your requirements to keep information private between departments.
Option A:
Option B:
Option C:
Scenario: Your organization has struck a committee composed of members from different departments. The rest of the organization should not have access to the work done in the committee.
Purpose: To analyze a particular organizational challenge and produce a plan or report; to confidentially develop or carry out a series of processes that affect the whole organization.
Jobs: Committee members must be able to:
Solution:
Ingredients:
Construction:
Scenario: The organization holds a yearly innovation day event in which employees form small groups and work on a defined, short-term problem or project.
Purpose: To develop innovative solutions and ideas.
Jobs:
Solution:
Ingredients:
Construction:
Scenario: Employees within the organization wish to organize social events around shared interests: board game clubs, book clubs, TV show discussion groups, trivia nights, etc.
Purpose: To encourage cohesion among coworkers and boost morale.
Jobs:
Solution:
Ingredients:
Construction:
Scenario: Within a department/workplace team, employees are assigned to projects with defined end times, after which they will be assigned to a new project.
Purpose: To complete project-based work that fulfills business needs.
Jobs:
Solution:
If your working group already has its own team within Teams:
If your workplace team does not already have its own team in Teams:
Hide the channel after the project concludes to de-clutter your Teams user interface.
Scenario: The organization must interview a slate of candidates to fill an open position.
Purpose:
Jobs:
Solution:
Ingredients:
Construction:
NB: The external candidate does not need the Teams application. Through the meeting invite, the external candidate will join via a web browser.
Scenario: Every quarter, the organization holds its regular board meeting.
Purpose: To discuss agenda items and determine the company’s future direction.
Jobs:
Solution:
Ingredients:
Construction:
NB: The external guests do not need the Teams application. Through the meeting invite, the guests will join via a web browser.
Scenario: A team meets for a weekly recurring meeting. The meeting is facilitated by the team lead (or manager) who addresses through agenda items and invites participation from the attendees.
Purpose: The purpose of the meeting is to:
Jobs: The facilitator must:
Solution:
Ingredients:
Construction:
NB: Create the meeting in the Teams calendar, not Outlook, or you will not be able to add the Teams channel. As meeting organizer, put your name in the meeting invite notes, as the channel will show as the organizer in the Outlook invite.
Scenario: Each morning, at 9am, members of the team meet online.
Purpose: After some pleasantries, the team discusses what tasks they each plan to complete in the day.
Jobs: The team leader (or scrum master) must:
Solution:
Ingredients:
Meeting Place Construction:
Scrum Board Construction:
Scenario: An audio-only conversation that could be a regularly scheduled event but is more often conducted on an ad-hoc basis.
Purpose: To quickly share information, achieve consensus, or clarify misunderstandings.
Jobs:
Solution:
Ingredients:
Construction:
NB: Microsoft Teams can be configured to provide an organization’s telephony for external calls, but this requires an E5 license. Additional audio-conferencing licenses are required to call in to a Teams meeting over a phone.