Forum Discussion
Allow users to create O365 groups or require admins to create groups?
If you go with the approach of leaving it open then you will inevitably end up with duplication, clutter, "group sprawl", etc.
Restricting group creation however subsequently restricts the ability to create StaffHub, Teams, Stream groups, SharePoint sites, Planner, and others.
Check out my slide deck from either Ignite last year, or Tech Summit Sydney last year about "Groups and Teams: Friend or Foe?" as I cover this topic a lot.
A happy medium is to restrict Group creation to a particular set of users, so then if someone wants a service that requires a Group they come to them.
The "happy medium" you described was the road I think we're heading down. That is how we've managed our on-prem SharePoint site creation for years, and it was very helpful to keep it under control. I understand some of the general usability benefits of allowing users to create groups, but what I am trying to get a clear picture of are the drawbacks with having a lot of groups and duplicate groups. Is this primarily an issue for the system admins, or does it even matter for them? Maybe it is just confusing for the end users if they have multiple groups for their teams and don't know which one to use. Any insight into that scenario would be helpful. I plan on checking out your deck, Loryan. Thanks for the reply!
- cfiessinger
Microsoft
Please see this session we delivered at Ignite which discussed self-service: https://myignite.microsoft.com/sessions/53450 other related sessions are listed here: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Office-365-Blog/Office-365-Groups-at-Microsoft-Ignite-2017/ba-p/114795
cfiessinger, I just listened to the "Embrace Office 365 Groups" session. That was great information! Thank you very much for pointing me to it.
cfiessinger wrote:
Please see this session we delivered at Ignite which discussed self-service: https://myignite.microsoft.com/sessions/53450 other related sessions are listed here: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Office-365-Blog/Office-365-Groups-at-Microsoft-Ignite-2017/ba-p/114795
