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– The issue with Individually owned Microsoft Forms

– Considerations before you request a Microsoft 365 Group

– Creating and setting up a Microsoft 365 Group for form ownership

–Microsoft 365 Groups and Forms FAQs

– How to manage your Microsoft 365 Group Membership

– Being Notified of form submissions in your personal Inbox.

– Differences between Group Owners and Group Members

– How to Identify all the groups I am a member or owner off

– Why create a Microsoft 365 Group and not a Teams (which utilizes a MS 365 group)?

If you wish to leverage Microsoft Forms to collect data for your unit, here are the following issues you may need to contend with:

• Continuity of Access: Forms created using personal accounts may become inaccessible if the creator leaves the organization. Forms that are associated with a group will mitigate this risk.
• Ownership and Data Accessibility: In cases where forms include uploads, only the primary owner can access these uploads. Multiple ownership does not extend to these elements. Forms that are associated with a group will grant all members of the group access to the uploads.

There is, however, significant overhead in creating Microsoft 365 Groups, managing Microsoft 365 Groups, and dealing with the life cycle of these groups to ensure they are not orphaned and appropriately deleted when no longer needed.

Before you request a new Microsoft 365 group consider the following:

• Will this form need longevity past your tenure? If the life of this form will conclude within your tenure (A form for persons to select meal preferences for an upcoming conference for example), then it is both appropriate and recommended that simply use your personal account to create and publish this form.
• Can you leverage an existing Microsoft 365 Group for this project?  Do not use a separate Microsoft 365 Group for each form. A Microsoft 365 Group – as its name implies – should be associated with a group of people working on this and other similar forms.
• Is Microsoft Forms the Right Tool for the Job? If your form does not have an upload component, for long-term surveys and forms, Qualtrics might be a better solution, it allows for easy transferring of ownership of surveys and results.

1. Identify a suitable group name: 
   1. Choose a name that reflects the job function related to the forms your group will manage.
   2. We recommend that you use the suffix forms in your group name to clearly indicate the group’s focus – see below.
   3. The total length of the group name (without the suffix) is 40 characters long.

   Too Vague:      ‘finance forms’ – Describes neither the form nor the group working on the form. Too Specific:   ‘finance winter conference travel reimbursement forms‘ – Focuses more on the form than the group. Just Right:     ‘finance reimbursement forms’ – Concisely describes the group’s function and area of focus.

2. Request a Microsoft 365 Group be created:
   • Email ihelp@uw.edu – Request a Microsoft 365 Group be created for your team’s forms.
   • Email Content – Include the following pieces of information in your email:
     1. The name of your group with the forms suffix.
     2. The iSchool unit that is using these forms (finance, HR, etc).
     3. One or more primary contact persons – who we can contact should questions arise about these forms.
     4. A brief summary of the form types you plan to create and the rationale for group ownership.

   • You will be notified by ihelp once the group has been created and configured.
3. Email Receipt Configuration: – This step is optional but required if you wish to receive a notification when the form has a submission.Configure the Microsoft 365 group to receive emails from outside the organization.

   

   Navigate to the group you wish to manage.

    

   

   Click on the group name at the top of the main group window to display the group details.

    

   

   Click Edit Group at the bottom of the dialog to edit the group’s settings.

    

   

   Under the About Tab, select “Let people outside the organization email this group.”

    

4. Create and Test Your Form:
   • Create the form, ensuring it meets the intended requirements. Test the form (FYI: Forms can be Hosted on SharePoint).
5. Ownership Transfer:
   • When ready to be deployed, change the ownership of the form to the group.
6. Email Notification Setup:
   • Enable the option “get email notification of each response” if immediate updates on responses are required.
7. Manage Group Membership as shown below.

– How to manage your Microsoft 365 Group Membership

– Being Notified of form submissions in your personal Inbox.

– Differences between Group Owners and Group Members

– How to Identify all the groups I am a member or owner off

– Why create a Microsoft 365 Group and not a Teams (which utilizes a MS 365 group)?

Navigate to the group you with to manage: In the navigation pane on the left-hand side, find “Groups”. Click on the arrow on the left to expand the groups and select the specific Microsoft 365 Group you want to manage.

Click on the Group name to bring up the Group Details.

Click on the Edit Group button on the bottom.

Click on the Members tab and then on the ‘Add members’ link.

Navigate to the group you want to get emails for: In the navigation pane on the left-hand side, find “Groups”. Click on the arrow on the left to expand the groups and select the specific Microsoft 365 Group you want to manage.

Click on the Group name to bring up the Group Details.

Click on the three dots in group details and select “Follow in inbox.”

This will ensure that your personal inbox is notified when there are new form submissions. If you wish to unsubscribe from this forwarding, and not get emails in your inbox anymore, follow the same steps and the option will say “Unfollow” or “Stop Following” instead of “Follow”. If you select that, you will no longer get notified by form submissions.

• Full Control: Owners have full control over the form and the group settings. This includes creating, editing, and deleting forms within the group.
• Management Capabilities: They can manage membership of the group, including adding or removing members, and changing other members to owners.
• Access Settings: Owners can adjust settings related to sharing and permissions for the form, deciding how the form is shared outside the group or organization.
• Form Deletion: Only owners have the ability to delete a form. This is an important distinction because deleting a form removes all associated data and responses.

• View and Edit: Members can view and edit forms owned by the group, which allows for collaborative editing and management of the form content.
• Response Access: They can access and analyze the responses to the form. This is crucial for collaborative review and decision-making processes.
• Can choose to Follow the group: If a group member follows a group, they will have a copy of the group notifications when someone has completed the survey sent to their personal Inbox.

All groups you are a member or owner of will appear in Outlook under Groups in your Outlook Mailbox Navigation pane.

NOTE: You might see Microsoft Teams you are a member or owner of listed here as well. By default, Microsoft Teams have their group mailbox option disabled and will thus not be listed here. When the team is being created, it is possible to request that you make your Team’s associated Microsoft 365 Group visible in Outlook, this will allow members to interact in Outlook through a shared Inbox and will thus be listed here.

Since forms can be shared with Teams and MS 365 Groups, so why not use Teams?  A Teams group is likely too broad. Further one will need to be an owner of a team to be notified of new form submissions.  For most use cases, creating a group for this purpose will help target the purpose of the form: who needs access to the form and its data, who needs to be notified of new form submissions, and who needs to take over to ensure business continuity.