How to structure a new Microsoft Intune environment

Start with the group model

Almost every policy in Intune is delivered through a group assignment, so the group model is the real foundation. Decide early which groups are dynamic and which are assigned, and write the rule down next to the group name.

• Device groups for platform, ownership, and deployment ring.
• User groups for licensing, app entitlement, and Autopilot user-driven scenarios.
• One exclusion group per policy family, created up front rather than during an incident.

A naming convention you can read at 2 a.m.

Names should say what the object is, what it targets, and which ring it belongs to. Avoid abbreviations that only make sense to the person who created the object.

Deployment rings

Three rings are usually enough: a small pilot for the IT team, a broader early adopter ring, and production. The important part is that every assignment explicitly names its ring, so nothing lands everywhere by accident.

# Illustrative example - review before running in any tenantConnect-MgGraph -Scopes "DeviceManagementConfiguration.Read.All" $profiles = Get-MgDeviceManagementDeviceConfiguration -Allforeach ($p in $profiles) {    $assignments = Get-MgDeviceManagementDeviceConfigurationAssignment -DeviceConfigurationId $p.Id    [pscustomobject]@{        Name        = $p.DisplayName        Assignments = $assignments.Count    }}

Documentation that survives

A short README in a repository beats a long document nobody opens. Record the purpose of each policy family, who owns it, and the intended ring progression.