Advanced Information Governance and Records Leadership Training Course

Course overview

Information governance leaders are expected to make records reliable, discoverable and defensible across collaboration platforms, business applications, shared drives and legacy repositories. The difficult work is not writing a retention schedule alone; it is translating legal, regulatory, operational and risk requirements into controls that business teams will use. Poor ownership, inconsistent classification, unmanaged transitory content and weak disposal evidence create exposure in audits, investigations, litigation and privacy incidents. This course equips experienced practitioners to lead a governance programme that addresses those conditions.

Participants examine the operating model, policy architecture and control design required for enterprise-scale records governance. They learn to assess governance maturity; define accountability using RACI and information asset ownership models; build taxonomy, classification and retention structures; map records obligations to Microsoft Purview controls; establish defensible disposition workflows; and measure programme performance through risk-based metrics. The course also addresses governance for Teams, SharePoint, email, cloud content, structured business systems and high-value information assets.

Instructor-led briefings are combined with working sessions built around a realistic multi-jurisdictional organisation. Participants analyse an information-risk scenario, test policy decisions against operational constraints, configure governance concepts through tool demonstrations, and defend recommendations to a simulated executive steering group. Each participant leaves with a practical Information Governance Leadership Blueprint: a maturity assessment, target operating model, prioritised roadmap, controls register and measures for reporting progress.

The course is best suited to records, information management, compliance, legal operations and digital transformation professionals who already understand core records concepts and now need to influence executives, coordinate control owners and implement governance across enterprise technology estates.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Conduct a risk-based information governance maturity assessment using defined capability domains and evidence criteria
• Design a target operating model with executive sponsorship, information asset ownership, RACI roles and escalation routes
• Build a business classification scheme and retention schedule mapped to record categories, triggers and disposition actions
• Translate ISO 15489 principles into enforceable policy statements, procedures and control requirements
• Configure a governance design for Microsoft Purview retention labels, retention policies and disposition review
• Develop a defensible disposition workflow with legal holds, approval evidence, exception handling and audit trails
• Create a controls register linking information risks, control owners, test methods, evidence sources and remediation actions
• Present a phased information governance roadmap with investment priorities, success measures and executive decision points

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Records and Information Managers — who must scale records controls beyond paper files and departmental repositories
• Information Governance Managers — who need to establish enterprise ownership, policy controls and implementation roadmaps
• Compliance and Risk Managers — who must demonstrate that information obligations are translated into operating controls
• Legal Operations and eDiscovery Leaders — who depend on reliable retention, legal hold and disposition processes
• Data Protection Officers — who need records governance aligned with accountability, minimisation and deletion obligations
• Digital Transformation and Content Services Leaders — who are introducing collaboration platforms and need governance by design

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience managing records, information assets, compliance controls or content platforms in an organisational setting. The course assumes familiarity with core terms including records lifecycle, retention schedule, classification, legal hold, metadata and disposition, plus confidence reading policies and process maps. Experience with SharePoint, Microsoft 365 or another enterprise content management platform is useful, but hands-on administration is not required. Participants do not need to be lawyers, auditors, programmers or Microsoft Purview administrators; demonstrations focus on making informed governance and design decisions rather than technical deployment.

Training methodology

The five days use instructor-led analysis of governance models and standards, followed by structured workshops that apply each method to a realistic enterprise scenario. Participants work with maturity assessment criteria, RACI matrices, classification models, retention rules, legal hold decisions and controls registers. Microsoft Purview demonstrations show how policy intent can be translated into platform controls without requiring administrator access. Small-group governance board simulations build decision-making confidence. On the final day, participants assemble and critique an implementation blueprint for their own organisational context.

Course outline

Day 1: Governance mandate, risk and leadership model

• Information governance scope across records, data, content and collaboration platforms
• ISO 15489 records management principles and accountability requirements
• Governance maturity assessment domains and evidence-based scoring
• Information risk identification using likelihood, impact and control effectiveness
• Executive sponsorship models and governance committee charters
• Information asset ownership and stewardship accountabilities
• RACI design for policy, classification, retention and disposition decisions

Workshop: Participants complete a maturity assessment and draft a governance RACI for a fragmented enterprise information environment.

Day 2: Policy architecture, classification and retention design

• Policy hierarchy from governance principles to procedures and work instructions
• Business classification schemes, functional analysis and record category design
• Metadata minimums for retrieval, retention and disposition accountability
• Retention schedule construction using regulatory, legal, operational and risk inputs
• Event-based retention triggers and calculation rules
• Retention conflicts, exceptions and supersession governance
• ISO 16175 functional requirements for trustworthy digital records

Workshop: Participants create a classification and retention design for selected finance, human resources and customer service records.

Day 3: Digital controls, holds and defensible disposition

• Microsoft Purview retention labels, label publishing and retention settings
• Microsoft Purview retention policies for locations and broad content populations
• SharePoint, Teams and Exchange records governance design considerations
• Legal hold workflows, preservation notices and release authorisation
• Disposition review queues, reviewer roles and approval evidence
• Audit trail requirements for deletion, export and policy changes
• Managing exceptions, unmanaged repositories and legacy content remediation

Workshop: Participants design a retention-label, legal-hold and disposition workflow for a regulatory investigation scenario.

Day 4: Assurance, measurement and programme delivery

• Controls register design linking risks, obligations, owners and evidence
• Control testing methods for policy adoption and platform configuration
• Key risk indicators and key performance indicators for information governance
• Sampling strategies for retention, classification and disposal assurance
• Issue logging, remediation ownership and residual risk acceptance
• Change management for business adoption and local champion networks
• Roadmap sequencing by risk reduction, dependency and implementation effort

Workshop: Participants build a controls register and prioritised remediation backlog from an assurance review case.

Day 5: Executive influence and governance blueprint

• Business case framing using risk, cost, service quality and regulatory exposure
• Stakeholder mapping for legal, privacy, security, technology and business leaders
• Governance board reporting packs and decision paper structure
• Budget, resource and capability planning for governance programmes
• Vendor and technology evaluation criteria for records management capabilities
• Programme roadmap milestones, dependencies and success measures
• Sustaining governance through periodic maturity reassessment and policy review

Workshop: Participants consolidate their Information Governance Leadership Blueprint and present its roadmap, controls and executive decisions to a simulated steering group.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Purview, Microsoft SharePoint, ISO 15489, ISO 16175

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions