Summary

Recommended a low-risk next step for the Microsoft 365 group cleanup effort after approved membership fixes were completed.

Recommendation

Do not delete groups or make broad Microsoft 365 group/calendar-linked changes yet. Move next to a staged deprecation plan focused on stale email-only groups, using hide/block/monitor instead of deletion.

Risk Controls

• Keep *-lit routing groups and Lit Events calendar groups off limits.
• Do not touch groups tied to calendars, Teams, SharePoint, Litify, Docrio, webforms, or office workflows until dependency is proven.
• Avoid deleting Microsoft 365 groups because deletion can remove connected mailbox/calendar/files/team resources.
• Prefer silent deprecation: hide from address lists, restrict senders or reject inbound mail, preserve membership/export logs, monitor, then delete only after a quiet period.

Suggested Order

1. Build a deprecation candidate list from zero-traffic stale groups.
2. For each group, classify as distribution-list only vs Microsoft 365 group/system-linked.
3. Apply reversible staging only to low-risk groups.
4. Monitor for bounced/blocked mail and staff issues.
5. Leave calendar or system-linked groups for separate review.

Pending Approval Questions

• Should Codex prepare a staged deprecation plan only, with no execution yet?
• Should Codex start with the safest zero-traffic distribution lists only?
• Should Codex keep Microsoft 365 groups, calendar-linked groups, and system-linked groups in investigation-only status?

Merged into canonical roll-up: 2026-04 Daily Artifact Roll-up