Entra ID Governance Review: What To Check First

Entra ID identity shield

Entra ID governance reviews should start with identity risk, not dashboard noise.

For many teams, the problem is not that Entra lacks information. The problem is turning that information into a clean review workflow that shows who has access, why they have it, and what should change.

Start With Privileged Access

Review:

  • Global Administrators
  • Privileged Role Administrators
  • Exchange Administrators
  • SharePoint Administrators
  • Security Administrators
  • Conditional Access Administrators
  • Application Administrators
  • eligible and active privileged assignments

For each role, document the owner, business reason, MFA status, and whether the assignment is permanent or temporary.

Review Users And Guests

Check:

  • inactive users
  • blocked users
  • guest accounts
  • users without MFA
  • accounts with weak ownership
  • stale external collaboration access
  • users with risky sign-in patterns

Guest access deserves special attention because it often grows quietly across projects, vendors, and one-time collaborations.

Groups And Access Paths

Review:

  • security groups
  • Microsoft 365 groups
  • dynamic groups
  • groups used for app access
  • groups used in Conditional Access
  • nested access paths where relevant

The key question is simple: can the team explain why this group exists and who owns it?

App Registrations And Enterprise Apps

Do not skip applications.

Check:

  • app owners
  • secret expiration
  • certificate expiration
  • API permissions
  • admin consent
  • unused apps
  • high-privilege permissions
  • unclear vendor or integration ownership

Apps can create long-lived access that outlasts projects and people.

Product Fit

For a structured review workflow, use the Entra ID Governance Review Kit:

https://store.cloudpeakify.com/products/entra-id-governance-review-kit

If you also manage on-prem identity, pair it with:

https://store.cloudpeakify.com/products/active-directory-audit-toolkit

Final Checklist

Before closing the review, confirm:

  • privileged roles are reviewed
  • guest accounts are documented
  • MFA gaps are visible
  • stale users are listed
  • app registrations are checked
  • group ownership is clear
  • risky permissions have owners
  • remediation actions are prioritized

Next step

Recommended next step

Use the matching Cloudpeakify kit when you want the workflow packaged instead of rebuilding it from scratch.