Microsoft Teams is a chat-based collaborative workspace that brings together people, content and conversations. Office applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote are connected to Microsoft Teams. Information Technology Services (ITS) administers the Microsoft 365 services at the University of Toronto.
This document provides the governance structure on the use of individual Teams and Team channels within the Microsoft Teams service. Included here are the types of Teams that can be created, roles, University policies and guidelines, and the effective use of individual Teams and Team channels to achieve user goals.
The purpose of this document is to provide the Terms of Use for individual Teams and Team channels (herein referred to as “Teams”) that exist within the Microsoft 365 Teams application. It outlines the roles and responsibilities, policies and processes that guide and govern the management and operation of individual Teams and Team channels.
Microsoft Teams is a cloud-based workplace chat and collaboration service available through Microsoft 365. Microsoft Teams is a relatively new service that is regularly updated with additional functionality. As such, this is a “living” document that will be reviewed and/or updated regularly by ITS, in conjunction with the functionality updates issued by Microsoft.
The scope of this document covers content generated while using the Team and Team channel features within Microsoft Teams. This document applies to any U of T member who uses Microsoft Teams, including faculty, staff, graduate students, affiliates and IT consultants. This Terms of Use document also applies to external users (e.g. consultants and partners) that may have authorized access.
Note: Microsoft Teams is a collaborative workspace where members have access to all the documents and conversations that are contained by the individual teams they are members of. Before adopting a Team for a specific use case, consider whether the data require special protections that may be more suited to SharePoint Online or other more restrictive spaces with respect to access.
Teams is designed for dynamic interactions and collaboration between members. Conversations and content sharing can be formal or informal. Teams is not intended to be a permanent repository for content. When a Team is created, an end-date may be assigned. Team Owners will be notified when the Team will expire. Owners can submit a request to renew their Team. For less temporal storage, SharePoint Online or another departmental or Library storage facility may be appropriate.
Team Owners are expected to review their Team on a periodic basis to determine whether a Team should be archived or deleted. Owners should archive content and retain the files as per U of T’s applicable retention practices.
At U of T, there are different common use cases for Teams. These might include:
The Teams icon is available in the Microsoft 365 waffle at mail.utoronto.ca. However, users cannot create or join Teams. Users can access individual teams by invitation only.
Requests for new Teams sites are processed by request. New Team requests should be submitted through the Enterprise Service Centre. Detailed instructions on how to request a Team can be found here. Any questions regarding the creation of Teams can be sent to need.Team@utoronto.ca.
Once a team is created, the URL name is permanent and cannot be changed. A team is given 250GB default space. A Team should have two designated Owners.
Faculty, staff and graduate students with a U of T Microsoft 365 account may request that a team be set up. Participation in a team may be extended to anyone in the University community, including appropriate external users where there is an academic or administrative reason for inclusion.
Note: External users can participate in Teams to a limited extent, and Team owners are responsible for the behaviour of external Teams users. More information on integrating external users with an individual Team can be found here.
Team requests follow an approval process. Requestors will be notified within five University business days of the request regarding team creation.
Considerations into the team approval process include but are not limited to:
Team Owners are responsible for:
Team Members are responsible for:
Content posted in Teams must abide by all relevant University guidelines and policies. All users are required to adhere to the following University of Toronto policies and guidelines:
ITS will review all Teams in Microsoft 365 on an ongoing basis for regular activity. A Team will be considered dormant after 12 months of user inactivity. After this time, ITS may contact the primary administrator to determine if the Team is still required.
A Team may be deleted under the following scenarios:
Before a Team is deleted due to inactivity, the following process will occur:
Regularly reviewing data and information stored on Teams are vital to ensuring that storage space is used optimally, and helps the University avoid risks associated with unmaintained content.
Team owners should review the data and information stored on Teams to determine if it can be considered a ‘University Record’, in which case it should be managed in accordance with the 'University of Toronto Archives and Records Management Services’ (UTARMS) guidelines and practices. UTARMS provides further guidance and tools for determining records retention and disposition. Purging data and information within Teams will help to reduce redundant, inactive, or transitory content. All University offices are responsible for disposing of inactive records in accordance with University policy.
In order to ensure that Team names are not duplicated and that they are appropriate for use, a nomenclature for creating Team names must be followed. Generally, the naming syntax is: [division][department][project/committee]. For example, a Team for members of EASI’s Enterprise Shared Services unit might be called ‘ITS EASI Shared Services’.
New sites are given 250 GB of space. Team Owners will receive a notification by email when the site is nearing its limit.
In cases where a Team has been deleted and needs to be recovered, requests to recover a Team can be sent to need.team@utoronto.ca. Request for Team reactivation must be submitted within 25 days of deletion. Team administrators should understand that such requests may incur costs, for which the administrator (or their department) is fully responsible.
Request for third-party apps to use with Teams are subject to review by the University’s Application Review Committee (ARC). For more information on submitting an app request, access the ARC webpage here.
ITS is responsible for providing support for the Microsoft 365 core services.
For all intents and purposes in this document:
ITS is responsible for:
ITS is NOT responsible for:
With special thanks and acknowledgement to: