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Blueprint for Understanding a Customer’s Microsoft Purview Implementation

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When analyzing a customer’s Microsoft Purview implementation, your goal is to assess their data governance, security, and compliance strategy, identify gaps, and provide recommendations. Below is a structured approach to achieve this:

Step 1: Initial Discovery

Objective: Understand the customer’s business context, data estate, and governance needs.

  1. Gather Stakeholders:

    • Identify key stakeholders (Data Governance Leads, IT Administrators, Compliance Officers).
    • Schedule a discovery session to gather information.

  2. Understand Business Objectives:

    • What are the primary business drivers for implementing Purview? (e.g., regulatory compliance, improving data access, minimizing risk).
    • Which data sources and regions are critical to their operations?

  3. Assess the Current State:

    • Does the organization already have a data governance strategy?
    • What tools or solutions are currently used for data governance, compliance, or privacy?

  4. Define Success Metrics:

    • Identify measurable outcomes, like increased data classification accuracy, reduced regulatory violations, or streamlined audits.

Step 2: Assess Purview Deployment

Objective: Get a technical overview of the Purview implementation.

  1. Scope of Data Sources:

    • Which data sources are connected to Purview? (Azure Data Lake, SQL Databases, Power BI, SharePoint, etc.).
    • Are all critical data sources connected, or are some missing?

  2. Classification and Labeling:

    • Are sensitivity labels configured and applied across datasets?
    • What types of data classifications are in place? (e.g., PII, financial, or healthcare data).

  3. Data Catalog:

    • Is the data catalog populated and kept up to date with automated scanning?
    • Check the use of metadata annotations for datasets (e.g., descriptions, owners, tags).

  4. Data Lineage:

    • Review how data lineage is tracked and whether it provides a clear understanding of data transformations and flows.

  5. Integration with Other Services:

    • How is Purview integrated with other tools like Microsoft Defender, Azure Information Protection, or third-party solutions?
    • Are role-based access controls set up via Azure Active Directory?

Step 3: Review Governance and Compliance Configurations

Objective: Understand how governance policies are implemented and compliance is managed.

  1. Policies and Rules:

    • What governance policies are configured? (e.g., retention, access restrictions).
    • Are policies aligned with regulatory requirements like GDPR, HIPAA, or CCPA?

  2. Regulatory Compliance:

    • Is there a compliance dashboard or reporting mechanism for audits?
    • Are there specific reports or workflows for regulatory requirements?

  3. Data Retention and Deletion Policies:

    • Are there retention policies in place for each type of data?
    • How is data deletion managed for compliance or privacy requests?

  4. Access and Ownership:

    • Are data owners assigned to critical datasets?
    • Review the enforcement of role-based access controls and permissions.

Step 4: Identify Gaps and Risks

Objective: Highlight areas needing improvement and assess risks in the current implementation.

  1. Classification Gaps:

    • Are there unclassified or improperly labeled datasets?
    • Are sensitive datasets consistently identified across all sources?

  2. Integration Gaps:

    • Are all key data sources connected, or are there blind spots?
    • Are there manual processes that could be automated using Purview?

  3. Policy Weaknesses:

    • Are governance policies comprehensive and enforced across all environments?
    • Are there gaps in data access control, retention, or deletion workflows?

  4. Compliance Risks:

    • Are there any areas where compliance requirements are not being met?
    • Are audit logs complete and regularly reviewed?

Step 5: Develop Recommendations and Roadmap

Objective: Provide actionable insights to improve the implementation.

  1. Immediate Improvements:

    • Address high-priority gaps (e.g., unclassified sensitive data, missing policies).
    • Optimize integrations with key services or data sources.

  2. Governance Enhancements:

    • Define clearer data ownership and stewardship responsibilities.
    • Develop a policy review and update cadence.

  3. Compliance and Reporting:

    • Create dashboards for real-time compliance monitoring.
    • Automate reporting for audits and regulatory needs.

  4. Training and Awareness:

    • Provide training for stakeholders on using Purview effectively.
    • Build a culture of data governance within the organization.

Step 6: Create a Follow-Up Plan

Objective: Ensure continuous improvement and alignment with evolving business needs.

  1. Metrics and KPIs:

    • Monitor metrics like classification accuracy, policy adherence rates, and time-to-audit.
    • Regularly review and adjust success metrics as the implementation matures.

  2. Ongoing Maintenance:

    • Schedule periodic reviews of data sources, classifications, and policies.
    • Incorporate feedback from stakeholders into the governance framework.

  3. Stay Aligned with Microsoft Roadmap:

    • Keep track of new Purview features and updates to continuously enhance the implementation.

Suggested Deliverables

To present your findings and recommendations effectively, prepare the following:

  • Current State Assessment: Highlight strengths, weaknesses, and gaps.
  • Risk Analysis: Document areas of potential non-compliance or operational inefficiency.
  • Action Plan: Provide a phased roadmap for improving the implementation.
  • Governance Handbook: Summarize policies, roles, and responsibilities.