Automate teams provisioning with the Request-a-team app template
Published May 15 2020 08:30 AM 107K Views
Microsoft

We have heard your feedback and are aware that enterprise and departmental leaders are working to enhance productivity and collaboration, especially across remote workforces. Microsoft Teams plays a critical role in doing this. Therefore, to support and promote strategically focused Teams enablement, we are pleased to announce the newest app template: Request-a-team.

 

Request-a-team provides a framework that automates the provisioning process based on core teams and channel options which are relevant to optimizing usage. This enables faster response time for team requests and offers a wealth of personalization options for organizations to implement repeatable best practices on team collaboration.

 

Easy to use request forms encourage and enable reuse of best practices

The Request-a-team app template leverages a Power Apps application to surface easy-to-complete forms for the collection of information such as business justification, access scope, and ownership. End users can create teams from scratch, reuse existing internal teams, and/or take advantage of publicly available templates published by Microsoft.

Figure 1 Landing Screen for team requestsFigure 1 Landing Screen for team requests

 

Figure 2 Set privacy in the first step of the wizardFigure 2 Set privacy in the first step of the wizard

 

Figure 3 Check availability of desired name and add additional detail to expose valueFigure 3 Check availability of desired name and add additional detail to expose value

 

Figure 4 Follow best practices in ownership and enable member population up-frontFigure 4 Follow best practices in ownership and enable member population up-front

 

Figure 5 Review inputs to ensure accuracy prior to submissionFigure 5 Review inputs to ensure accuracy prior to submission

 

 

Actionable dashboards and adaptive cards keep everyone in the know

Once requests are submitted, it is important to keep track of progress and to respond to those requests as approvers. The Request-a-team app template offers list dashboards (shown below) and adaptive cards to keep everyone abreast of changes. Approvers may respond to requests either from the Approve requests tab (only visible by approvers), or within preferred channels where they can easily respond using an adaptive card. These dashboards include an extra bonus feature for cloning an existing request and give approvers an alternate place to approve/deny requests.

Figure 6 List dashboard showing previous requestsFigure 6 List dashboard showing previous requests

 

Figure 7 List dashboard showing Approve requests tab (for approvers)Figure 7 List dashboard showing Approve requests tab (for approvers)

 

Figure 8 Adaptive card targeted to approver's channelFigure 8 Adaptive card targeted to approver's channel

 

 

Enable teams to hit the ground running with strategic templates

Reuse is important to scaling knowledge across the enterprise, thus Teams has always supported building teams from templates. Teams templates are pre-built definitions of a team's structure designed around a business need or project (learn more here). So, we have included this option in the Request-a-team app template in order to facilitate building teams from pre-existing internal Teams instances as well.

9.png

 

Haven’t had time to create reusable templates? No worries! Take advantage of the many tried and tested publicly released templates by Microsoft! Learn the purpose and description of each Microsoft template directly in the app by selecting one from the dropdown and checking out the description on the right.

Figure 10 List of publicly available Microsoft templatesFigure 10 List of publicly available Microsoft templates

 

Envision, Execute, and Enable

We are sure you will be delighted to discover the value of the new Request-a-team app template! This new template will empower remote workers to plan new teams based on learned best practices, to execute powerful Teams instances for productivity and collaboration, and to enable employees of all levels and skill sets to get the most out of the Microsoft Teams experience! We look forward to hearing your feedback soon.

 

Learn more about Microsoft Teams app templates here.
79 Comments
Bronze Contributor

Great to see the announcement of the Request-a-team app template for Microsoft Teams. Some questions:

  • Where can we get the Request-a-team app template?
  • Can we modify the Request-a-team app template to tailor it to our needs?
  • Does the Request-a-team app template support organizations that want to use teams with sensitivity labels created and published in the Security & Compliance Center?
Copper Contributor

Thought of something like this a few weeks back but I just started with a Web Form for the request, this is way-more integrated, YES very interested to see when it shows up as a template we can use and apply, TYVM.

Microsoft

@Harold van de Kamp, as far as the first two items are concerned, you can find the app in the Microsoft Teams App Template article below. You will be pointed to a GitHub repository, where you can modify as needed.

 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/platform/samples/app-templates#request-a-team-app 

Iron Contributor

Hello,

 

Great app.

From what I see, a global admin account must be created with a E3 license to deploy the app. Our tenant has applied Multi Factor Authentication for all users, including global admins. Any problems using the solution with MFA enabled?

 

Thanks 

Iron Contributor

Great to see this. Will be checking this out with a view to deploying in our tenant.

This is excellent.  Will definitely be having a play with this.

Copper Contributor

Are there any licensing implications using this App Template,  if you already have a E3 licensing plan?

Microsoft

some amazing stuff !

 

Brass Contributor

Awesome!... Is this also available for GCC customers?

Microsoft

@Miguel Lopes Isidoro I checked with engineering, and there shouldn't be any issues with MFA. The global admin who deploys the solution should be signed in to install the solution as per the deployment guide. After which the flows and LogicApp should do fine. The connections do have to be maintained of course. 

Microsoft

@Avanderberg I will double check, but as far as I know the Graph API we are using for teams creation is not GA for GCC yet. I will double check and post here. 

Microsoft

@Dave_Sexton Licensing always depends a lot on the number of API calls being made for the solution. In this case seeded licenses for Power Automate would work fine (unless calls exceed 2000 per day - see this doc), but you would also need Azure Resources for the LogicApps flow. See cost estimates on that here

Copper Contributor

Excellent feature and I can already see a lot of use cases.

 

I have one question though, how should we restrict users or a set of users from creating the teams so that they are "enforced" to request a creation of teams?

 

Thank you,

Microsoft

@gillesvilleneuve  to restrict users in creating Teams via the client/out of the box, you need to restrict O365 group creation - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/admin/create-groups/manage-creation-of-groups?view=o3...

You do this through a Security Group. You could for example restrict most/all of the users and allow a set number of users e.g. IT to create groups outside of the App.

Thanks

Copper Contributor

@Audrie Gordon great feature! We tested the solution and prepared an article for the german community!
https://collabstack.de/blogs/microsoft-request-a-team-app-microsoft-teams/

Iron Contributor

Hi,

 

Will new Microsoft Teams Templates be supported in the App and the user be able to choose which template he wants the Team to based on?

They were announced today at Build: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-blog/create-teams-quickly-with-templates-in-m...

 

Thanks

Microsoft

@Miguel Lopes Isidoro Hopefully we can support the new Templates when they are available through the Graph APIs.

 

You can use custom templates in this solution at the moment however by creating your own Template teams and adding these to the 'Teams Templates' list (we effectively clone these in the background).

 

See the documentation for more details on how to create templates.

Copper Contributor

This looks like a fantastic provisioning solution, but it's unclear to me the licensing requirement.  

 

I have a client who has an Office 365 E3 or Office 365 E5 license for each user.  Would the Automation component be enough to use this solution?  Does there need to be a Power Automate license for the app itself?  I've looked at the document and it left me confused.  

 

Any guidance towards information which would clarify would be welcome, I've looked in the existing links and wasn't left feeling confident with an answer.

 

Thanks in advance!

Microsoft

@georgecoldham Hopefully I can help clarify for you. So for the Power App and Power Automate parts of the solution (Request app and Approval flow), an Office E3 or E5 license is completely fine (these include Power Apps/Power Automate - we term this as 'seeded' licenses).

You would need to assign Power Automate and Power Apps licenses (as part of the E3/E5 plan) to the users who will use the app.

 

The provisioning part uses Azure Logic Apps, this is a separate paid for service and will require a billable Azure subscription. 

Hope that helps.

Copper Contributor

Thank you @AlexC-MSFT for a prompt reply, it helps but I'd still appreciate further clarification.  Looking at a user story.  A regular user who wishes to request a team, E3/E5 if fine.  For a support staff who approves using the Teams Interface, E3/E5 is fine - assuming the  seeded license is assigned to the user account.

 

I am clear on the Azure billing side of things, much more comfortable there.

 

What I'm unclear is is there any person in the activity of provisioning the app to the environment, or while it is being used by the client who'd require a full Power Automate / Power Apps license?  Is there anyone who'd need it?

 

Thank you, and forgive me if I'm asking the same question again.

 

Microsoft

@georgecoldham no worries - happy to help.

In brief, no - there is no need for a full Power Automate or Power Apps license for anyone, either a user or an admin who deploys it. Seeded licenses are basically ok for all.

Thanks

Brass Contributor

Is there a fee to use this app? Is it available for Government clients?

Copper Contributor

Hi @Annette1101 

 

From my understanding, there is no fee to use the app. It is freely available on Github to download and deploy.

 

There are licensing requirements for the users which are covered with PowerApps for Office 365 included in Office E3 and Office E5 (and other licenses)

 

There will also be charges in an Azure subscription that is hosting the resource group which as the Automation Account.  The automation account gives a free amount per month but then has small charges on top of this.

 

I'd encourage you to do your due diligence on the licensing and subscription charges based on your requirements, but looking at using it in a 6000 person environment we were pretty confident the cost would be minimal based on existing licensing.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Cheers

George

Microsoft

@Annette1101 the only chargeable elements are the Azure components - the Logic App and the Automation runbook (these are in addition to your Office 365 licenses). Please see the GitHub repository which has details of expected cost.

The functionality should work in Government tenants however there may be elements of the deployment script that do not yet work in GCC. If you find any issues then please raise these so we can get them resolved.

Thanks

Copper Contributor

This is a very cool solution and i can't wait to get it working! i have spent a few hours today and got everything configured step by step according to the document, i have the power app running with no errors.

 

The only issue is when i get to "Add members" i see the drop menu but nothing populates, any idea why? how is it populating those lists? is it going to list all 1000+ users in my tenant? 

Microsoft

@aabuasad the 'Add Members' and Owners drop downs are people picker combo boxes, it will allow you to search all users in your tenant.

 

If the box is not populating, try editing the Power App and setting the IsSearchable property of the members combo box to false, then set it back to true again, save and republish. This will hopefully solve your issue.

Thanks

Copper Contributor

@AlexC-MSFT Many thanks for the quick answer, this has fixed it for me, search was off and i love how quick it finds users and how it even shows their photos too

Copper Contributor

Thanks for the excellent article, i am just curious about how we can disable the teams creation native approach as the only way to disable it through restrict O365 groups creation which will restrict the ability perform number of activities include:

Microsoft

@RElFwakhry I'm afraid there is no way to disable the native teams creation option without restricting O365 group creation.

 

There are several options available to cover request/provisioning of the above such as customising the 'Request-a-team' app/solution to provision these OR use a third-party solution.

Copper Contributor

We're trying to tweek this up a bit before rolling it out to all users, one thing we want to do, is remove the approval process, i think i can change that in flow, setting the value for the new entry to whatever corresponds to approved. but how can i remove the privacy option in the app? we want users to be able to create private teams only.

 

Appreciate your help

Copper Contributor

Great app with few improvements. How do I add following functionality as below:

 

  1. Disable “Public” in Visibility drop down which prevents users from requesting “Public” Teams. The drop down should default to Private
  2. Add drop-down picker to show existing teams so that users cannot pick

Any suggestions?

Microsoft

@aabuasad to remove the approval process you could simply disable the flow and update the Power App to set the status to 'Approved' as soon as the request is submitted.

 

As for privacy, you can remove the dropdown option from the app and set the default value of the 'Visibility' column to Private.

 

Thanks

Microsoft

@sneranacdw similar to @aabuasad 's ask, you could remove the dropdown or set it's visible property to 'False', you can then just hardcode the value to 'Private' either in Power Apps or the SharePoint list itself.

 

For number 2 - are you looking for a list of existing teams in your tenant for users to request to join?

 

Thanks 

Iron Contributor

@AlexC-MSFT  similar to @sneranacdw question, as part of the process Approvers will have to adhere to some criteria before approving the Team creation, for example does a Team with same/similar goal/function already exist? For this an Approver would need to see the list of all existing Teams in the org and maybe be able to search - something at the moment I see only possible in the Admin Centre (Current Search for teams in Teams will not show non-discoverable private Teams and only returns items if you search for the first word of the Teams' name)

How would you suggest to go about this? 

Brass Contributor

Before I review much further, has this been implemented by a GCC customer with success?

Brass Contributor

Is this supported my Microsoft? Our biggest concern is that this could stop working in say 6-12 months time?

Microsoft

@Chris Cundy this is not an official Microsoft supported product, it is an add-on App Template. The underlying technologies are supported i.e. Power Apps, Power Automate, Logic Apps etc. so if you wanted support for an issue it would need to relate to the underlying product itself.

 

It's unlikely it would stop working due to the fact it uses the Production endpoints of the Microsoft Graph.

Microsoft

@Annette1101 I will need to check for you, I don't think it has been implemented by a GCC customer but will follow up internally to see if there are any changes we need to make to support GCC. Thanks

Microsoft

@mikkele there are ways of achieving this such as using the Graph API to retrieve a list of all the Teams, you could execute this Graph call directly from the Power App and perhaps provide an 'Admin' view where they can see all the Teams and search. Bear in mind you would need premium connectors to achieve this so there will be licensing considerations.

Hope this helps.

Copper Contributor

Great application, we are currently implementing it in our organisation. 

 

I am curious why only two members can be added in the initial request via the PowerApp? And why two teamowners are required?

 

I understand this can be changed once the team is created, but I would like to only have to add members once. Or at least understand the reasoning why.

 

 

Copper Contributor

Template are good. Templates WITH content is AWESOME.

 

For these templates to REALLY work we need to be able to populate Planner, Wiki and the SharePoint sites with content. A project needs more then some channels and tabs to be useful for the business to get busy. I want to be able to fill it with a start place where there are instructions on how to move on and some groundrules.

Copper Contributor

You might want to take a look at that solution to get a different perspective:

https://www.valprovia.com/en/teams-center

Copper Contributor

Hi,

 

Quick question:

 

1. We have modified the 'Teams Templates' list in sharepoint to reflect our own, and are currently creating these templates in teams.
What do we need to update in the SharePoint 'Teams Templates' list? Is it the template ID and what should this be?

 

Thanks,

Mike

Microsoft

@MikeP4249  have you checked the recent documentation on how to use 'Teams Templates' with Request-a-team?

Here you go - https://github.com/OfficeDev/microsoft-teams-apps-requestateam/wiki/Teams-Templates 

Hope that helps.

Thanks
Alex

Copper Contributor

@AlexC-MSFT Appreciate if you could be more specific on disabling  approval process in Power apps , what value needs to be changed and how to disable approval flow.  Thank you

Copper Contributor

Hi,

 

I did not see any reply as to whether there are any known GCC deployments.  
I too am interested but have limited bandwidth to be a trailblazer.

 

David

Microsoft

@marquesaaa the simplest way to do this would be to update the 'OnSelect' code for the 'btnSubmitReviewAndSubmit.' button and the 'btnSubmitReviewAndSubmit' buttons. 

You will see here, it sets the Status to 'Submitted'. Simply change that to 'Approved' and it should bypass the approval flow. 

Microsoft

@David Good question, I'm going to follow this up internally as to whether there have been any known GCC deployments and get back to you.

 

Thanks

Microsoft

Hi,

Can I change Visibility sentence and add more explanation on the template? 

Microsoft

Hi,  @Audrie Gordon 

Can I change set privacy step to have clear definition or explanation for private/public or add more explanation on the template?

 

thank you 

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