# Keep a Team healthy

- URL: https://m365playbooks.com/playbooks/keep-a-team-healthy/
- Topic: Microsoft Teams workspaces (Program)
- Product: Teams, SharePoint
- Stage: Maintain
- Last reviewed: October 14, 2026
- Version: 1
- Written by: Sev Derghazarian

## 1. Purpose

Keep access current and content findable, so former members lose access and stale content stops showing up in search and Copilot answers.

## 2. Overview

A light review rhythm that keeps owners, members and channels current, and archives the Team when its work is done.

- Effort: About an hour each quarter per Team
- Duration: Ongoing
- Complexity: Low
- Who's in the room: Team owners, Microsoft 365 admin for expiration policy
- Beyond E5: Nothing beyond Microsoft 365 E5
- Risk of not doing it: Former members keep access, and stale content keeps surfacing in search and Copilot answers.

## 3. Key activities

### Prerequisites

1. **Know your Teams** List the Teams you own and their purposes.
   Who: Team owners.
   Produces: A list of owned Teams.

2. **Check the expiration policy** Find out whether your organization uses a group expiration policy and its period.
   Who: Microsoft 365 admin.
   Produces: Known renewal dates.

### Decisions

3. **Decision: Archive or delete when work ends?** Archived Teams can be reactivated. Deleted Teams can be restored only within 30 days, by restoring the underlying Microsoft 365 group.
   Options: Delete; Archive; Leave it. Recommended default: Archive.
   Who: Team owners.
   Produces: An end-of-life rule.

### Pilot configuration

4. **Run one quarterly review** Review owners, members and unused channels on one Team.
   Who: Team owners.
   Produces: A tested review routine.

5. **Archive one unused channel** Archive or delete one unused channel and tell members where that work lives now.
   Who: Team owners.
   Produces: A tidier Team.

### Production configuration

6. **Repeat the review each quarter** Run the same review on every Team you own.
   Who: Team owners.
   Produces: Current owners and members.

7. **Renew or archive at expiry** When asked to renew, decide whether the Team is still needed.
   Who: Team owners.
   Produces: Teams that exist for a reason.

8. **Make it enforceable** A group expiration policy renews active Teams automatically and asks owners to renew the rest, so reviews start without anyone remembering. Groups that are not renewed are deleted, so decide on archiving before they expire. _Partly enforced. The gaps are a risk until a mechanism covers them._

## 4. Operating rhythm

1. **Monthly: handle membership requests** Approve or decline pending requests.
   Move on when: No request older than a month.

2. **Quarterly: review owners and members** Remove people who no longer need access.
   Move on when: Membership matches the current group.

3. **Quarterly: tidy channels** Archive channels with no activity.
   Move on when: Every remaining channel has a purpose.

4. **Yearly: decide continue or archive** (Change: Sustain) Confirm the Team still has a purpose.
   Move on when: The Team is renewed or archived.

## 5. Common challenges

- **If you** Delete Teams when work ends. What tends to happen: Content people still need is gone, and recovery gets harder over time.. A better approach: Archive the Team instead. Its content stays viewable and searchable, you can make its SharePoint site read-only for members, and it can be reactivated later.

- **If you** Ignore renewal notices. What tends to happen: Unrenewed groups are deleted at expiry.. A better approach: Treat the renewal notice as your yearly review prompt.

## 6. Checkpoints

**Pilot:**

- [ ] Did the first quarterly review remove at least one stale member or channel?

**Production:**

- [ ] Does every Team have two current owners?
- [ ] Was membership reviewed in the last quarter?

## 7. Success measures

Capture a baseline before you start, or you won't be able to show the change.

- Channels with no activity in 90 days (Where you see it: Teams usage reports; Good direction: Down)
- Members removed at each review (Where you see it: Owner review log; Good direction: Steady)
- Teams deleted at expiry without a decision (Where you see it: Microsoft 365 admin center; Good direction: Down)

## 8. Additional reading

**Monitor:**

- [Archive or delete a team in Microsoft Teams](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/archive-or-delete-a-team)
- [Set expiration for Microsoft 365 groups](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/users/groups-lifecycle)

## Changelog

- Version 1, 2026-10-14, Sev Derghazarian: First published. Placeholder draft for review; facts checked against Microsoft Learn.