Blueprint for Understanding a Customer’s Microsoft Purview Implementation

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.