SharePoint Implementation and Governance: Sites, Libraries and Microsoft 365 – Dubai, 12–16 Apr 2027

Programme overview

Introduction:

SharePoint implementation often starts with good intentions and ends in sprawl: nested subsites nobody owns, libraries of folders without metadata, broken permission inheritance, anonymous sharing links and an intranet that search cannot surface. Content then outlives its purpose because no retention label was ever applied. This Core Concept course trains site owners and Microsoft 365 administrators to design a flat hub site architecture, build libraries and permissions that scale, and govern a SharePoint tenant alongside Teams and OneDrive. Working in a lab tenant, participants produce a SharePoint Site Architecture and Governance Plan.

Course Objectives:

• Map how SharePoint stores and serves content behind Teams, OneDrive and Loop and decide where each type of work should live
• Design a flat information architecture of team sites, communication sites and hub sites with shared navigation and news rollup
• Configure document libraries with site columns, content types, views, versioning and co-authoring settings
• Set permission groups, sharing links and external access controls that keep inheritance manageable and auditable
• Apply Microsoft Purview retention labels, record declaration and Power Automate approval flows to library content
• Produce a SharePoint Site Architecture and Governance Plan covering provisioning, ownership, lifecycle and adoption

Target Audience:

• Site owners and site collection administrators who build and maintain departmental and project sites
• Microsoft 365 and SharePoint administrators who manage tenant settings, sharing policies and site provisioning
• Intranet and internal communications teams who publish news, pages and navigation for the whole organisation
• Records and information officers who configure retention and record declaration inside libraries
• Knowledge and collaboration leads who organise team workspaces and drive user adoption

Course Outline:

Day 1: SharePoint in Microsoft 365 and the Current Tenant

• SharePoint as the Storage Layer for Teams Files, OneDrive and Loop Components
• Team Sites, Communication Sites and Hub Sites: Collaborate, Communicate, Connect
• Classic Subsite Hierarchy Versus Flat Modern Site Architecture
• Tenant Current-State Audit: Site Inventory, Orphaned Sites and Storage Use
• Business Needs Interviews and Content Owner Mapping Template

Day 2: Information Architecture, Hubs and Intranet Design

• Hub Site Planning: Hub Families, Association Rules and Shared Branding
• Global Navigation, Hub Navigation and Audience Targeting Design
• Intranet Home Site: News Posts, Page Templates and Web Parts
• Site Columns, Content Types and the Content Type Gallery
• Managed Metadata Term Store: Term Groups, Term Sets and Keywords

Day 3: Libraries, Permissions and Collaboration Sites

• Document Library Build: Metadata Columns, Filtered Views and Default Values
• Version History Limits, Check-Out Settings and Real-Time Co-Authoring
• SharePoint Groups, Permission Levels and Inheritance Break Points
• Sharing Links, Guest Access and Site-Level External Sharing Settings
• Project Team Site Template: Lists, Planner Tasks and Teams Channel Tabs

Day 4: Retention, Automation, Search and Migration Risks

• Microsoft Purview Retention Policies Versus Retention Labels and Record Declaration
• Preservation Hold Library Behaviour and Disposition Review
• Power Automate Approval Flow Triggered from a Library Item
• Search Findability: Promoted Results, Managed Properties and Result Sources
• File Share Migration at Overview: Pre-Scan, Path Length and Permission Mapping

Day 5: Lab Build and the Governance Plan

• Lab Build: Hub Family With One Communication Site and Two Team Sites
• Lab Build: Labelled Records Library With an Approval Flow
• Site Provisioning Request, Naming Convention and Ownership Rules Drafting
• Adoption Plan: Champions Network, Training Paths and Usage Analytics Review
• SharePoint Site Architecture and Governance Plan Presentation and Peer Review

Skills You Will Gain:

• Information Architecture Design
• Hub Site Configuration
• Metadata and Content Type Modelling
• Permission Model Management
• External Sharing Control
• Retention Label Application
• Approval Flow Automation
• Collaboration Adoption Planning

Why Attend This Course:

• Return with a SharePoint Site Architecture and Governance Plan drafted and tested against a lab tenant
• Replace folder sprawl and broken inheritance with a site and library design that owners can maintain
• Know which tenant sharing and provisioning settings to change first and why
• Compare intranet and collaboration practice with administrators from other sectors and countries

Conclusion:

A SharePoint tenant serves the organisation when every site has an owner, a place in a hub family and libraries that carry metadata, sensible permissions and retention. The course moves from SharePoint's role behind Teams and OneDrive and a tenant audit, through hub and intranet architecture and the term store, to library, permission and sharing configuration, then to retention labels, approval flows, search and migration risks. The final day's lab builds produce a SharePoint Site Architecture and Governance Plan ready for the tenant's owners.