Best practices from the field: Microsoft 365 change guide

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Notation

This article was written by Microsoft experts in the field who piece of work with enterprise customers to deploy Office.

Of import

The information in this commodity applies to the Microsoft 365 multitenant environment.

Continuous modify in the cloud

The Microsoft 365 deject environment is a hyperscale suite of service offerings that's constantly changing. In the technology industry, existence consistently cutting-edge benefits productivity, security, and user happiness. Change in the Microsoft cloud has purpose: to deliver client value, secure the environment, and delight users. The pace of modify in Microsoft 365 is rapid and continuous - both adjectives describe the client value pipeline that this model helps. Microsoft helps users increment efficiency in their organizations by offer innovative features and secure services.

Microsoft uses an agile development model that promotes rapid development. This model shortens the time from when a alter is initiated to when it'south in production. To aid ameliorate usability, nosotros aim to shorten the time between feature implementation and value realization for our customers. Active development is important in the modern deject surround. Using information technology, we can nimbly adjust engineering priorities that'southward based on customer feedback, market place dynamics, regulatory requirements, and emerging risks. Swift integration of changes into your environs means that we receive feedback data faster, and then we can iteratively ameliorate our services.

Many changes relate to new features that are designed to heighten the user feel. These changes are a category of alter that's within a broader set up. The broader set of categories of modify includes service maintenance, security updates, and updates to run across the needs of the e'er-changing regulatory and compliance landscape.

Microsoft constantly improves Microsoft 365 services to assist every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more than. Our commitment to enhancing the user experience means that nosotros offer a continuous stream of updates to the service. And to ease your deployment planning, we release client updates in alignment with release cycles. We design new features to improve productivity and delight users. Equally of import is for features to operate in a secure and compliant environment. As part of the shared responsibility model, Microsoft takes extensive measures to secure our surround. Our certifications hosted on the Microsoft Service Trust Portal evidence our compliance with 100+ frameworks. The other half of the responsibleness model – your environs – must as well be secure and compliant, then we carefully consider potential customer impact when nosotros structure our changes and the surrounding processes.

Historically, the deployment of changes within customer organizations has been tightly controlled by IT departments. Decision-making deployments inside your tenant holds a place in the mod deject landscape, just faster feature deployment is key to realizing value for your users. Equally the Microsoft cloud further adopts a continuous update model, organizations' ability to make chance-based decisions on which changes crave granular evaluation and which can be implemented immediately becomes paramount.

When Microsoft adds capabilities, and users leverage these capabilities, the user experience improves equally supported past data. At the time of writing, a comparison of net promoter score (NPS)[1] betwixt customers using the continuous update channel (Current Channel) and the Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel shows a 10-point advantage[2] to the continuous update channel for Microsoft 365 Apps (previously called Role 365 ProPlus). Figure one shows a comparing.

Net Promoter Score Release Channel Comparison. Effigy 1

Our goal is to provide your organization with changes that can be controlled (where possible), if deemed impactful to the arrangement, while still allowing the majority of changes to flow to users to raise value, productivity, collaboration, and security.

Controlling change: challenges and strategy

Despite the overwhelming benefits of rapid characteristic release and adoption, it's of import to use a robust change management strategy. We recognize that managing change, especially continuous cloud change, can exist challenging for organizations. It departments and other lines of defense often believe that each modify must be reviewed in depth before they deploy new software in their environments. This might be an advantageous strategy for a subset of high impact changes, but reviewing 100 pct of changes is a burdensome strategy that delays deployment of the endlessly evolving features that enable your users.

Not all features or changes have the potential to touch on your security or compliance stature, so it might non be necessary to deeply analyze every unmarried modify. For changes that are impactful, nosotros provide configuration options for controlling related features. To aid users prefer new features, by default, these changes are generally on - activity is required on your part to disable or limit these features.

The ability to control impactful changes is a differentiator offered by Microsoft. The technology manufacture is predominantly focused on innovation, which is generally assumed to have positive impact on users. Information technology is not common to find granularity of control over these innovations offered by technology leaders or other deject providers. Past respecting your right to control most impactful changes, we're demonstrating our commitment to partnership and ultimately your success. Furthermore, we're committed to improving the overall change experience. Past providing transparency into our modify process, procedures, and roadmap, and by monitoring customer feedback, we want to enable our customers to evaluate and deploy the quickly increasing volume of updates that nosotros release.

Challenges

From industry observations, feedback, and supporting information, we've identified a cardinal challenge that our customers confront when they use highly restrictive change ingestion models to the continuous release policy of Microsoft 365. The challenge lies in how frequently Microsoft updates services in the modernistic cloud. To illustrate the claiming, assume that Microsoft pushes 720 changes per twelvemonth, released linearly. If these changes are restricted for evaluation, IT departments that are gating changes could be behind upward to 60 changes afterwards the first month. The resulting backlog of changes heightens the entropy in the environment and prevents users from utilizing the latest features and updates. The question becomes: is the system capable of processing these rapid changes according to existing procedures or are changes left disabled considering they cannot match the pace of release?

Important

"Is the organization capable of processing these rapid changes according to existing procedures or are changes left disabled because they cannot friction match the footstep of release?"

The claiming tin can be further explained by the "automobile metaphor." Many organizations focus only on functionality and security. In the context of a vehicle, this is the equivalent of focusing on getting from point A to point B. In this case, owners are content if they can ready the vehicle, if they know how it works, and if the vehicle has seat belts for security. Withal, we claiming the It professionals reading this to consider the user. To the average vehicle consumer, transportation is more than A to B. Users (consumer drivers) want a radio for amusement, air conditioning for climate control, and power windows for convenience. Drivers want anti-lock braking systems, airbags, and seat belts for security. If the focus is solely on enabling users to achieve the destination, y'all might exist disenfranchising the population that wants to be more secure, comfy, and efficient on the journey. If organizational lines of defence force spend valuable time divining which features are important, which features users intendance virtually, and which features are causing disruption to the IT environment, the burden becomes unsustainable. This calls for democratization of change evaluation; for more than information, see the department, Change Evaluation Democratization.

Although Microsoft doesn't provide a default off pick, we find that very few customers take reward of the options that we provide to disable features in their environments. When organizations utilise an "everything off" strategy by leveraging our provided configurations, the upshot is similar to managing on-premises software. The benefits originally sought by moving to the deject are largely alienated past this approach, considering the innovations that users care almost are unavailable. Moreover, the Microsoft ecosystem suffers from the gap in usage data created by this strategy. For example, diagnostic data[three] provides Microsoft with valuable information almost how our customers use features, how the features are (or are not) improving overall experience, and crash reports that help us to stay apprised of widespread problems. Although nosotros provide customers control over diagnostic data, exercising these controls limits the data we have for keeping our service secure, upwardly to date, and functioning equally expected.

We cite this as a challenge because nosotros acknowledge the delicate residue that must be reached between controlling the environs, ensuring proper preparation, and providing employees exciting new features. IT professionals are at the forefront of maintaining this residue - this is why Microsoft provides tools, transparency, and guidance for making risk-based deployment decisions. Configuration management tools, product roadmaps, change notifications, and documentation are manifestations of our commitment to aid you in reaching modify-chance equilibrium.

This conversation is focused on the features that we deliver, not the security updates that happen in the groundwork. The same features that we develop with exhaustive marketplace research to increment productivity and user satisfaction. The features that help empower our customers to attain more, with open up feedback channels to suit for negative feedback in an agile fashion. We require customer participation to validate our features, which means features must first be deployed in customer environments for users to leverage.

Strategy

Three categories of customers tin be identified based on their observed change strategies: Maximize Modify, Allow Most Restricting High Bear upon, and Restrict All Alter. Figure 2 summarizes these categories.

Maximum change strategy diagram. Figure 2

The Maximize Alter strategy is most applicative to small- or medium-sized businesses that seek to optimize user productivity, and that operate without compliance or regulatory requirements.

The Allow Most Restricting High Touch category is the strategy that we recommend you target, particularly if your organization operates in a regulated surroundings, or if you have strict security requirements (like in the financial services, healthcare, and aerospace industries). The example for implementing a risk-based approach for evaluating changes is supported past the NPS data in Figure 1.

Microsoft advises customers to be intentional with their decisions to disable a alter and to avert unconsciously leaving all changes disabled. Microsoft strives to enable you to brand hazard-based decisions almost changes that require in-depth evaluation, while allowing the remainder of the changes to be deployed immediately with minimal evaluation (and risk). Past proactively identifying our modify impact levels, described in alter classification and notification, and by keeping you apprised of upcoming changes, described in sources of modify information, nosotros aid y'all in making take chances-based decisions on which changes require evaluation.

The Microsoft industry ascertainment shows that the Restrict All Change strategy is overly burdensome and less effective at user empowerment because information technology limits the benefits of continuous innovation.

Consuming and managing change – Message center and Planner

All change strategies crave advice and messaging for users to swallow and act on the change. Message center is your notification hub for planned changes and other of import Microsoft 365 announcements. Message center is located in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. It includes upcoming new and inverse features, planned maintenance, and other of import announcements. At that place are three categories for messages:

  • Forestall or fix issues
  • Plan for alter, and
  • Stay informed

The message attributes that Message center provide include Publish Engagement, Message ID (for tracking specific messages), Title, and (change/event) Description. The Message middle is a critical source of information that's important for change planning and update consumption beyond Microsoft 365. Edifice projects and tasks from these often-actionable notifications is critical to successful modify strategy. To help you improve understand this content, Planner has been integrated with Message center allowing letters to exist directly synced with Planner.

Planner features include:

  • Syncing messages from Message center.
  • Selecting the type(s) of messages synced.
  • Setting a cadence for the message sync.

Afterward a bulletin is synced to Planner, it shows upward in Planner equally a task. Messages center postal service titles are prefixed with the associated service in brackets. If a message is updated, that update also syncs to the Planner task.

Each chore is structured as:

  • The bulletin postal service title has a prefix in brackets (for example, "[SharePoint] New characteristic") that indicates the service that the postal service is associated with. Effigy 3 shows an example.
  • The Start Date is set to the fourth dimension the job was created in Planner.
  • The Published Engagement of the message post can exist plant in the Notes.

Message center post sample. Figure 3

When you use Planner to manage tasks, group tasks, and formulate a plan of action for completing tasks strategically, you can review boards and alter management teams to rail change efficiently.

Change types and command methods

Microsoft provides various release options and tools to assistance control and deploy changes in a style that aligns with your strategy. We previously discussed our recommended strategy; in this section, we describe how y'all tin can implement this strategy.

Microsoft 365 changes are released to both services (similar SharePoint Online and Teams) and clients, referred to as Microsoft 365 Apps (similar Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint). Services and clients have dissimilar release channels and deployment controls, and so it's important to sympathize the differences as you implement your release management strategy.

Types of changes for Microsoft 365 services and clients

Microsoft 365 changes can be planned or unplanned, depending on the nature of the changes. For case, security updates aren't e'er planned, because they're reactions to emergent risks or issues in our products or services. Depending on the type of change, the communication channel might also vary. Communication channels are further described in the section, Change classification and notification. For a summary of change types for both services and client applications, see Table i.

Table ane: Change types for Microsoft 365 services and customer applications

Item Functionality Non-security updates Security
Type of alter Feature updates
New features or applications
Deprecated features		 Client hotfixes for issues Security patches
Advance notice? 30 days' notice for changes that require action No; these are included in the monthly build for all channels No; these are included in the monthly build for all channels
Advice aqueduct Message center Microsoft 365 roadmap
Microsoft 365 weblog
Microsoft 365 area of the Microsoft Tech Community		 Release information for updates to Microsoft 365 Apps Security bulletin or CVE
Requires admin action? Sometimes Rarely Rarely
What kind of action? Alter settings
Communicate changes to users
Validate customizations		 Modify admin settings

Responsibility for managing these changes is shared betwixt Microsoft and yous as the ambassador of your Microsoft 365 tenant. For more than data, run into the Microsoft shared responsibility model.

Now that we've outlined the types of changes that y'all tin can look from Microsoft 365 services and client applications, including associated responsibilities, the next department explores the dissimilar release channels and the controls available for each.

Service release channels and controls

Service release channels

Microsoft 365 services provide two channels for receiving new product updates and features equally they become bachelor: Standard Release and Targeted Release.[4] These release options help you to manage how your organization receives service updates. Nosotros provide controls for you to designate which users receive updates, based on their association to one of the release channels.

As Microsoft develops products and features, new releases are validated in a ring deployment model. Figure iv depicts the validation rings, with each deployment ring reaching a broader audition. Before moving to the adjacent ring, a threshold of deployments in the prior ring must complete without whatsoever issues.

Release management validation diagram. Effigy 4

Microsoft characteristic teams are first to validate the features that they develop (Ring 0).

After identified bugs or issues are resolved, the characteristic is released to the Microsoft 365 system, spanning a wider user base of operations for validation (Ring one).

Later on the feature is deemed ready, it's released to all of Microsoft (Ring 2), which is referred to internally as "dogfooding" our products to identify issues, before updates reach the public.

Rings three and 4 are public releases. Band 3 is comprised of customers who take configured their tenant, or specific users, to exist on the Targeted Release channel. Substantial feedback and product performance data is nerveless in this ring as our customers perform integration testing and broad validation across many countries, cloud architectures, and IT professionals or power users. If your tenant, or a subset of your users, are configured for Standard Release, Ring 4 is when these users – and the residuum of the world – receive the new features.

To implement the democratization of alter strategy inside your organization, leverage Targeted Release (Band 3) for both It and power users.

Service release controls

Your primary control for receiving service updates is the configuration of your release channels. Although Microsoft provides y'all command over the cadency at which your users receive updates, these changes are deployed to our hyperscale cloud services (instead of to software installations that are running in your IT infrastructure). Information technology would be impractical for Microsoft to manage, update, and secure a global deject with specific versions of our services running for specific tenants. This means that service changes give yous less granularity of control over deployment than Microsoft 365 Apps do, considering Microsoft 365 Apps have both release channels and various deployment tools available.

You can configure release options in the Microsoft 365 admin portal as described in Set the release selection in the admin center. Navigate to the portal, and then select Settings > Org Settings > Organizational Contour > Release Preferences. Figure 5 shows the configuration pane where yous can select to accept everyone on Standard Release, everyone on Targeted Release, or specific users on Targeted Release.

Release preferences options. Figure 5

It's important to have a staging or test tenant as role of your change strategy. Sure features require tenant changes earlier manifestation in the user experience. These tenant changes can exist implemented in the staging tenant, so you tin preview features, while preserving production tenant configurations.

Client release channels and controls

Client release channels

Microsoft offers unlike update channels to which customers tin can subscribe for updates to our click-to-run clients, Microsoft 365 Apps (previously Function 365 ProPlus). These channels decide how frequently changes are released to their entire tenant or subscribed subdivisions their tenant, depending on customer configuration. Channels are a powerful mechanism through which IT departments and power users can evaluate and test upcoming changes without hindering their release to the greater user population. For more information, see Overview of update channels for Microsoft 365 Apps.

Table 2 provides a comparison of the Microsoft 365 Apps channels, Current Channel, Monthly Enterprise Channel, and Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel.

Table ii: Microsoft 365 Apps update channels

Channel name Current Channel Monthly Enterprise Channel Semi-Almanac Enterprise Aqueduct
Recommended use Provide your users with new Office features as before long as they are ready, only non on a set schedule. Provide your users with new Office features simply once a month and on a predictable schedule. For select devices in your arrangement, where all-encompassing testing is needed before rolling out new Office features. For instance, to comply with regulatory, governmental, or other organizational requirements.[v]
Release frequency At least once a month (likely more often), but not on a set schedule Once a month, on the second Tuesday of the calendar month Once a calendar month, on the second Tuesday of the month
Feature updates Every bit soon as they are ready (usually once a month), merely not on a ready schedule Once a month, on the second Tuesday of the month Twice a twelvemonth (in Jan and July), on the 2nd Tuesday of the month
Security updates (if needed) In one case a month, on the second Tuesday of the month Once a calendar month, on the 2nd Tuesday of the month Once a month, on the 2d Tuesday of the calendar month
Not-security updates (if needed) Unremarkably at to the lowest degree once a month (peradventure more oftentimes), but not on a set schedule Once a calendar month, on the 2d Tuesday of the month In one case a month, on the second Tuesday of the month[6]
Back up duration for a specific version Until the next version is released with new features, which is usually about one month Two months Fourteen months

Microsoft provides three main methods to modify Microsoft 365 Apps update channels for devices in your organization:

  • Alter the update channel with Grouping Policy

  • Alter the update aqueduct with the Office Deployment Tool (ODT)

  • Change the update aqueduct with Configuration Manager

When you switch channels, at that place are certain considerations - such equally loss of features when switching users from Current Channel to Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel. For a complete list of considerations, meet Considerations when changing channels.

Client release controls

In conjunction with release channels, which are inherently controls themselves, Microsoft provides a selection of tools and configurations for further deploying, controlling, and managing your Microsoft 365 clients. The tools for managing your devices and the Microsoft 365 clients installed on them take historically been decentralized. In improver to a multitude of third-party options that are available, the Microsoft solutions include the following tools:

  • Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager

  • Intune

  • Desktop Analytics

  • Autopilot

  • Microsoft 365 Apps admin center (config.role.com), which integrates with the Function cloud policy service

  • Other features in the Device Management Admin Console

Although the capabilities that these tools stand for are still available, we take listened to market feedback and, as illustrated in Figure 6, consolidated these tools to create i single integrated solution, Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager.

Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager chart. Figure six

As of 2019, Microsoft refers to our suite of direction solutions under this single brand. By attaching Intune to your Configuration Director deployment (referred to as co-management), yous can attach the intelligence from the Microsoft 365 deject to your workflows in powerful ways. Y'all can:

  • Completely automate compatibility testing for Windows upgrades.
  • Deploy customer updates faster to make your organization secure and compliant quickly.
  • Take firsthand deportment on your devices.

Manage updates to Microsoft 365 Apps with Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager is your source for understanding:

  • The prerequisites that are required when using Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Managing director to update Microsoft 365 Apps.

  • How to enable Configuration Managing director to receive Microsoft 365 client package notifications.

  • How to enable Microsoft 365 clients to receive updates from Configuration Director.

  • Your options for enabling clients to receive updates from Configuration Manager.[seven]

For comprehensive instructions to configure your deployment strategy, see the Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager documentation.

The Microsoft 365 Apps admin center is designed to help admins lower their total cost of buying while being able to quickly deliver features, security, and quality updates with Microsoft 365 Apps. The insight and control capabilities can provide deeper and near-existent-time deployment information, issue notification, and quick actions (snooze, restore, pause, and resume) to ensure minimal user downtime.

The Microsoft 365 Apps admin center offers inventory and servicing profiles to meliorate manage device updates for Microsoft 365 Apps.

Office inventory

  • Drill into detailed views of Office devices and add-in information.

  • View insights similar channel/build spread, add-in diverseness, and more than.

  • Export the data.

Security currency

  • View a dashboard for security update compliance condition cantankerous-channel.

  • Set your target goal and timeline to rails and report.

  • Identify declining devices and accept mitigating action.

Servicing profiles

  • Ready profiles for devices to automatically receive updates based on custom requirements.

  • Throttle-based on network congestion and location.

  • Takes reward of Windows x delivery optimization.

  • Act using the tool to Break, Restore, and Snooze deployments.

  • Maintain device compliance with update deadlines and update date exclusions.

Important

At the time of publishing, the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center is available to enterprise customers with E3 SKUs and later.

Customer configuration controls

After Microsoft 365 Apps are deployed to devices and users, at your defined cadence and with enterprise-class tools, Microsoft provides you granular client configuration controls. Microsoft 365 Apps have over 2,000 configuration options allowing you lot to alter client behavior to accommodate your organization'due south adventure, compliance, and operational profiles.

Although group policy has historically been used to enforce customer settings and is still a feasible method, we have adult a deject-based synchronization nexus service that allows policies to roam with users: the Office cloud policy service. This service lets you enforce policy settings for Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise on a user's device, even if the device is not domain joined or otherwise managed. When a user signs into Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise on a device, the policy settings roam to that device. You can also enforce some policy settings for Function web apps, both for users who are signed in and for users who admission documents anonymously.

Effigy 7 shows the portal and the vast number of policy settings bachelor for configuration in the Microsoft 365 Apps admin heart. You can also utilize the Part cloud policy service directly in the Microsoft Endpoint Manager admin eye.

Screenshot of the Edit policy configuration webpage. Figure seven

Some configuration options control basic client beliefs, such as scroll bar visibility in Excel or availability of Alive Subtitles in PowerPoint, while other configurations may be of import to your security, compliance, or risk departments. Figure 8 illustrates the Role cloud policy service option to enable or disable connected experiences in Microsoft 365 Apps, which provide users with web-based services from their desktop clients (like Translator, Bing image search, and 3D Maps).

Screenshot of drop-down box to enable or disable the use of connected experiences in Office that analyze content. Figure viii

Microsoft provides privacy controls so that yous can come across compliance and security obligations on a global scale, regardless of operational localities. With Office cloud policy service, you can use a uncomplicated drop-downwardly carte du jour to alter these settings and employ the modifications beyond the devices that utilise that profile.

Change evaluation democratization

Earlier, we shared data that supports the user value of beingness on Electric current Channel, which provides continuous updates. Nosotros recommend this channel and Monthly Enterprise Aqueduct equally two solutions to expedite update evaluation and testing. Microsoft recommends two models for using these channels:

  • Test tenant: To evaluate and test incoming features, customers apply a examination tenant that mimics production. For clients, we recommend that the exam tenant exist subscribed to Current Aqueduct or Monthly Enterprise Channel. For services, nosotros recommend that the test tenant be subscribed to the Targeted Release channel. Examination tenants are used for integration testing and product evaluation separate from production. Traditionally, Information technology owns tests tenants and operates the examination accounts within. This is an IT-centric model that may cause bottlenecks and incomplete evaluations to occur. We recommend inclusion of users from various departments and roles in your test tenant. IT departments are not experts on every production and are non always best suited to perform certain product evaluations. For Microsoft 365 services, Targeted Release and Standard Release channels are available.

    • Microsoft 365 Apps: For information virtually the benefits and how to enroll or alter update channels, meet Alter the Microsoft 365 Apps update channel for devices in your organization. For a description of benefits, meet the Client release channels section of this article.

    • Microsoft 365 services: For information about the benefits and how to enroll in to these update channels, see Set up the Standard or Targeted release options. For an outline of the channels, see the Service release channels & controls section earlier in this article.

  • Ability user (expertise): To democratize update evaluations, place ability users in your product tenant and subscribe them to Current Aqueduct or Monthly Enterprise Channel (Microsoft 365 Apps) and the Targeted Release channel (services). Only the specified power users receive continuous or early updates and serve as an essential source of feedback, bugs, and experience across various lines of business concern and user expertise.

You can use these two models concurrently to provide comprehensive, effective, and efficient evaluation of incoming updates. Moving away from the Information technology-centric credence model and democratizing evaluation across your system improves the speed and quality of the effort. If the balance of your organisation subscribes to Semi-Almanac Enterprise Channel or Standard release channels (Microsoft 365 Apps and Microsoft 365 services, respectively), the updates evaluated in the exam tenant, past Information technology and power users, will be ready to deploy with reduced friction.

Internally, Microsoft employs these change evaluation strategies in a programme called Microsoft Elite. The Microsoft Elite plan is beyond dogfood and serves as our early adopter programme. Our employees exam features and specific scenarios; they provide quality feedback that improves programs and features before they're released to our customers and colleagues. You can use the release cadences and change strategy described earlier to mimic this programme in your own environment.

Microsoft modify plans, policies, and procedures

The Microsoft change mission is to enable rapid delivery, better productivity, and delight customers with new applications and features while minimizing friction and disruption. Managing alter is an evergreen program that delivers continuous innovation to users. Changes are necessary to keep products and services secure, upwardly to date, and working as expected. Although innovation is primal to delivering user value, we recognize that impactful changes to your environment may create legal, regulatory, security, or compliance risks. To reduce potential take chances, Microsoft commits to:

  • Following defined modify control policies and procedures.
  • Notifying you of impactful changes at least thirty days in advance.
  • Listening to community feedback to amend the change release process.

Modify direction plan

The Microsoft 365 Change Management Plan is essential for enabling customers to plan for and manage change. Figure nine illustrates the pillars of the plan.

Diagram of the four pillars of the Microsoft 365 Change Management Plan. Figure ix

The Microsoft Change Management Programme outlines three alter phases and recommended customer actions that are associated with each action. Table iii summarizes the iii change phases.

Tabular array three: Microsoft Change Management Programme phases

Phase 1: Before change Phase 2: During change Phase 3: Later modify
Identify a modify center of excellence or cloud governance board with representatives from each line of defense in the business organization.

Validate existing change policies and create policies as required.

 Consider the change's impact to your arrangement and your users. Provide feedback about an upcoming service alter by using the Message center communication.
Know nigh the change:
Check Production Roadmap
Check the Message center in the Microsoft 365 admin eye		 Stay aware of workflow changes to help deployment teams and increment user productivity through proactive adoption and change management. Review factors that drive successful deployment in your organization and suit to reduce bear on and increase awareness and efficiency.
Provide feedback about an upcoming service change by using the Message heart communication. Ensure that the stakeholders and contacts section of your client profile is complete and provided to your Technical Account Manager (TAM). Changes are designed to benefit customers. Assist your users be aware of changes, empathize them, and become the most out of them.

Regardless of change strategy, ensuring that your users understand the latest changes is important for successful adoption. The criticality of adoption and alter management continues to tendency upward equally Microsoft and the greater market motility toward continuous change.

Alter classification and notification

Microsoft classifies changes to assist customers in understanding and planning appropriately for each update. Major updates should be a primal focus for customers evaluating and analyzing upcoming changes. If a change is classified as a major update, Microsoft commits to notifying customers at to the lowest degree xxx days before implementation when an action may exist required.

To be classified equally a major update, changes must see one or more of the following criteria:

  • Changes to daily productivity such every bit inbox, meetings delegations, sharing, and admission.
  • Changes to the themes, web parts, and other components that may touch on customizations.
  • Increases or decreases to visible capacity such as storage, number of rules, items, or durations.
  • Rebranding that might cause user defoliation or result in help desk/collateral changes or URL changes.
  • A new service or application.
  • Changes requiring an admin action (exclusive of prevent/fix).
  • Changes to where data is stored (might impact regulatory or legal requirements).

The Message center in the Microsoft 365 admin center is your main source of modify information. Message center marks changes of high importance (major updates) with a red exclamation mark (❗) - this helps them to be easy to identify and rails during various stages of release. Effigy 10 shows a screenshot.

Screenshot of Message Center preferences. Figure 10

Messages are identified in the right-side column above by i of three categories:

Prevent or fix bug: These messages inform yous of known issues that are affecting your system and might require you to have action to avoid disruptions in service. Forbid or fix issues are different than Service health letters because they prompt you to exist proactive to avert bug.

Plan for change: These messages inform you of changes to Microsoft 365 that may require yous to act to avoid disruptions in service. For case, you volition be notified about upcoming changes to organisation requirements and nearly features that will be removed. To keep the service running normally, we strive to provide at to the lowest degree 30 days' notice of whatever change that requires an admin to act.

Stay informed: This is where nosotros notify yous about new or updated features that we're turning on in your system. The features are usually announced beginning in the Microsoft 365 Roadmap. Stay informed messages might likewise let you lot know about planned maintenance in accordance with our Service Level Agreement. Planned maintenance might consequence in down time, where you or your users can't access Microsoft 365, a specific characteristic, or a service similar email or OneDrive for Business. For more information, see the Message center documentation.

Both "foreclose or set up bug" and "plan for change" letters might require action from admins. To help yous prioritize and plan, the Deed past column contains the date past which action is required.

Important

"To help y'all prioritize and plan, the Act by column contains the date by which action is required."

The Message center admin user interface is one fashion to obtain service change information. Using the Function 365 Service Communications API, you tin can build automated solutions to query the following relevant information:

  • Get Services: Returns the listing of services to which you are subscribed.
  • Get Current Status: Returns a real-fourth dimension view of current and ongoing services incidents.
  • Get Historical Status: Become a historical view of service incidents.
  • Get Messages: Find incident and Bulletin center communications, which include change data.

We commit to continuously improving our change nomenclature and notification processes. Our efforts to predict which changes may impact client environments are the basis of our alter classifications, but these predictions are limited without input from our community of customers. The customer feedback we receive through various channels enhances our ability to respond to change concerns in an active, democratized, customer-centric manner.

Sources of information and feedback channels

To ensure broad broadcasting and accessibility, Microsoft publishes change data in a diversity of locations. The Message heart in the Microsoft 365 Admin Portal is a key source of tenant-specific information, just you should pay attention to the entire suite of sources to ensure that you're holistically informed in a timely manner.

Sources of change information

Microsoft 365 Roadmap

The Microsoft 365 Roadmap is a public website that relays the status of products that are in development, rolling out, or launched. You lot tin can view the condition of each feature or workload, search using tags, and confirm release dates from a single portal. As illustrated in Figure 11, you can use filtering to easily find services or features of interest.

Screenshot of the Microsoft 365 roadmap with filters. Figure 11

Message centre weekly assimilate

Your admins can utilise the Bulletin heart weekly assimilate to review Message center communications via electronic mail in a digestible, easily shared, summary format. The assimilate was created in response to customer feedback and demonstrates the innovative ways the Microsoft customs furnishings alter in our processes. Customers tin opt out of digest emails by changing settings in the admin portal. Figure 12 shows an example of the digest.

Sample Message center announcement. Figure 12

Microsoft admin mobile app

The Microsoft 365 admin mobile app has more than than 80 features that help you lot manage your company when you're on the go. The app is available for download in the Apple tree App Store and Google Play. Using the mobile app, you can perform common tasks like user password reset, add users to a group, and review change notifications and alerts. Nosotros recommend enabling mobile alerts, so that you stay apprised of updates the moment they are released. Figure 13 shows a screenshot of the mobile app.

Screenshot of the Microsoft 365 admin mobile app.
Effigy thirteen

To accept advantage of the Microsoft 365 admin mobile app features, download the app.

Other alter data resources

In addition to irresolute our services, nosotros as well update Microsoft 365 clients. Both sets of changes follow our Modify Direction Program and are communicated in the Message center. For documentation almost client changes, see:

  • Overview of update channels for Microsoft 365 Apps

    • These update channels mirror those described earlier in the Change Management Plan.

  • Release data for updates to Microsoft 365 Apps

    • Client release notes provide a wealth of information about the latest security updates, update sizes, and updates for different platforms (for case, Mac).

  • Microsoft 365 news and announcements

    • Read about the latest releases and features in our weblog posts, which are separate from our formal documentation on docs.microsoft.com.

  • Microsoft 365 Service Descriptions

    • Review Microsoft 365 services and features to acquire more about existing features that y'all can leverage to improve security and productivity.

Outside of formal documentation, we recommend customers join the Microsoft Tech Community to keep a pulse on how changes are managed and deployed by industry peers. The Microsoft Tech Customs is an active, raw, real-fourth dimension source of information. We actively monitor the platform to better empathise how changes are existence received.

Feedback channels

Microsoft establishes a virtuous feedback loop between customers and our products. In that location are several examples of changes that have been rolled dorsum or modified because of feedback submitted by customers. Customers tin provide feedback through multiple channels:

  • Microsoft 365 admin portal
  • Bulletin middle
  • Microsoft Tech Community

Microsoft 365 admin portal
At the lesser-right of each page in the admin portal, customers can provide feedback by clicking the Give feedback button, which is illustrated in Effigy 14.

Screenshot of the Give Feedback button.
Figure xiv

Message centre

The Give feedback push too exists in the Message center so that you lot tin provide feedback about incoming changes or other notifications without switching portal pages. The feedback from the Bulletin heart goes directly to the owning engineering and marketing teams within Microsoft. Microsoft owners receive a daily report of new feedback that has been submitted. If your feedback is regarding a specific change or message, exist certain to include the Bulletin center ID so that the feedback tin can be correctly correlated. In Figure 15, y'all can see the Give feedback button in the lower-right of the Message center.

Screenshot of the Message center configuration page. Effigy 15

The Message middle also supports Like and Dislike buttons, equally shown in Figure 16, for each message. Using these, you lot can quickly provide feedback. We aggregate this feedback and use it to understand general customer reception of our recent changes.

Screenshot of Like and Dislike buttons. Figure 16

Microsoft Tech Customs

This community serves both as a source of alter information from your peers and every bit a forum for providing feedback. We monitor the Tech Community forums for valuable feedback and use the information to influence internal decisions. Figure 17 shows a list of feedback forums.

Screenshot of Feedback forums list. Figure 17

one: Net Promoter Score (NPS) is an manufacture calculation that measures user preferences for a production or service. NPS is calculated by accounting for users who detract, back up, or are neutral toward the target of the examination. Subtracting the percent of Detractors from the per centum of Promoters yields the Internet Promoter Score, which can range from a low of -100 (if every customer is a Detractor) to a high of 100 (if every customer is a Promoter).

two: With a 1.5 margin of error.

3: Microsoft provides controls over the diagnostic information nerveless from user endpoints, as described in Use policy settings to manage privacy controls for Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise. To the extent that Microsoft is a processor or subprocessor of Personal Data field of study to the GDPR, the GDPR Terms in the Microsoft Online Services Data Protection Annex Attachment iii govern that processing and the parties also hold to the post-obit terms in this sub-department ("Processing of Personal Information; GDPR").

4: For guidance most opting in to these service release channels, come across Set up up the Standard or Targeted release options.

5: If your entire organization is on a semi-annual cadence, you might detect that the vi-month period between feature updates causes your clients to fall out of compliance with regulatory requirements or internal policies every bit y'all wait for such an extended period between releases.

6: This consists of a selected subset of non-security updates for Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel.

7: For Configuration Manager to exist able to manage Function updates, an Function COM object needs to be enabled on the computer where Role is installed. The Role COM object takes commands from Configuration Managing director to download and install client updates. Y'all can enable the Part COM object by using client policy in Configuration Director, Grouping Policy, or the Part Deployment Tool. If you use more than one method, the Group Policy setting determines the final configuration.