Protect doesn't create product-specific security roles. The responsibilities in this article help teams separate review from remediation while SharePoint remains the authorization system.
Responsibility matrix
| Responsibility | Recommended owner | Protect tasks |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy and update | Microsoft 365 or SharePoint Administrator | Approve the app, deploy its package, enable Teams, and verify rollout. |
| Operate the site | Site Collection Administrator or Site Owner | Maintain owners and groups, review custom permission boundaries, and apply approved access changes. |
| Review and collect evidence | Security, compliance, or audit reviewer | Filter sites and permission entries, identify exceptions, and export Excel evidence. |
| Make the business decision | Workspace or project owner | Confirm whether a person, guest, link, or site still has a valid purpose. |
| Use governed content | Contributor | Enter valid metadata and participate in document approvals without administering broad access. |
Assign deployment ownership
The deployment owner should:
- Choose the tenant-wide or site-scoped rollout model.
- Maintain the App Catalog package and Teams availability.
- Define who can request or activate Pro licensing.
- Test updates with representative accounts.
- Maintain the support and escalation path.
See Deploy Protect to Microsoft 365 for the complete procedure.
Assign review ownership
A reviewer should be able to answer:
- Which workspaces were in scope?
- Which filters and risk criteria were applied?
- Who decided whether each exception was acceptable?
- Which changes were approved?
- Where is the exported evidence retained?
Reviewers can perform discovery, filtering, and export without receiving permission-management rights when remediation belongs to a site owner.
Assign remediation ownership
The person who grants, changes, removes, or imports access should:
- Confirm the affected path and access source.
- Verify the business owner's decision.
- Check inheritance before applying a change.
- Keep at least one valid owner or administrator in place.
- Refresh and verify the result after the write completes.
Protect Pro controls access to the product's editing actions, but SharePoint must also authorize the signed-in user.
Assign policy ownership
For each governed document library, identify a policy owner who understands both the metadata model and the working process. That owner should approve:
- Destination columns and their internal names.
- Required values and allowed choices.
- Naming or extraction patterns.
- Whether a mapped source can rename files.
- Changes to native SharePoint validation generated by Protect.
The implementer needs Manage Lists permission, but policy approval can remain with a business or information-management owner.
Apply least privilege
Test with separate accounts when possible: one reviewer with read-oriented access, one site owner who can remediate permissions, and one library owner who can manage metadata policies.