Standing assignments
Identify accounts that retain privilege continuously and the business or technical function each assignment supports.
Independent Microsoft 365 review
Know who can administer the tenant—and why.
For organizations that have accumulated administrators, inherited a tenant or need to clarify standing privilege, emergency access and accountable ownership.
- Before any access
- Written question and scope
- Agreed evidence method
- No automatic tenant changes
Inventory privilege by purpose, not title alone.
A role name does not explain why access exists, how often it is used or what would happen if it disappeared. The review connects assignment evidence to operating responsibility.
Eligible or time-bound access
Where licence and process allow, understand activation, approval and expiry rather than assuming eligibility automatically lowers risk.
Workload-specific administration
Separate broad directory privilege from Exchange, Teams, SharePoint, security and compliance responsibilities where the operating model supports it.
Check the identity behind the role.
Privileged access depends on the account, authentication method, device and recovery path—not only the directory assignment.
Dedicated administration
Determine whether everyday productivity and privileged work are separated, and document exceptions where separation is impractical.
Authentication strength
Review the methods and policy paths available to administrators, including exclusions and recovery dependencies.
Service and automation identities
Map non-human identities separately because ownership, credential rotation and interactive sign-in expectations differ.
Protect emergency access without making it unusable.
Emergency access is a resilience control. It needs deliberate isolation, monitoring and testing while remaining available when normal authentication paths fail.
Purpose and custody
Record what event justifies use, who can authorize it and how credentials or authentication methods are held.
Policy treatment
Understand intentional exclusions without turning the account into an unmonitored bypass for ordinary administration.
Validation
Define a controlled check that confirms access remains usable and that expected monitoring or notification paths still function.
Leave ownership clearer than you found it.
The output should let leadership and operators decide which assignments remain, change, become eligible, or need investigation.
Role-to-owner map
Connect each material privilege to an accountable role and a current operational reason.
Exception record
Describe constraints such as licensing, legacy automation or staffing and set a decision point instead of hiding them.
Change sequence
Avoid removing privilege before replacement ownership, emergency access and dependent workflows are understood.
Next step
Define the review before sharing evidence.
Start with the trigger, decision, and known boundaries. Do not send passwords, recovery codes, or tenant exports.