Azure AD Entitlement Management is the core service used to govern identity and access at scale within an enterprise. It groups resources—such as groups, applications, and SharePoint sites—into containers called catalogs. Inside these catalogs, administrators define access packages, which bundle the specific resources and roles a user needs to perform a task. Access is governed by assignment policies, which dictate who can request the package, who must approve it, and how long the access lasts.
Establishing this infrastructure involves specific, sequential deployment steps. Administrators first configure the base entitlement management structure, which typically takes one hour of deployment time. Defining automatic assignment policies takes another hour, while building custom extensions and configuring access reviews each require two hours of setup effort.
To prevent conflicts of interest and maintain regulatory compliance, administrators configure policies that enforce a strict separation of duties. When a user requests an access package, the governance engine checks their existing roles and group memberships. If the requested package contains incompatible permissions, the system blocks the request automatically. This preventative control is backed by monitoring systems that alert administrators to anomalies and generate compliance reports for audit preparation.
Access packages support multi-stage approval workflows to ensure proper authorization before granting permissions. When a user submits a self-service request, the system routes the request to designated approvers, who must sign off before any access is provisioned. To maintain the principle of least privilege, these assignments can be configured with strict expiration dates or require recurring access certifications. This design ensures that access automatically expires unless it is explicitly re-certified during a periodic review.
Organizations can automate access using automatic assignment policies, often referred to as birthright assignments. These policies evaluate user attributes, such as department or job title, and automatically grant the corresponding access packages when a user joins or changes roles. For exceptions or specialized scenarios, administrators can manually assign packages or trigger assignments using automated scripts via PowerShell.
To extend these governance capabilities, administrators integrate Azure Logic Apps to run custom workflows. These workflows are triggered by lifecycle events, such as when a request is created, an assignment is granted, or when an assignment is about to expire. For example, the system automatically triggers notification workflows fourteen days and one day before an assignment auto-expires. These Logic Apps can then send alerts to communication channels, call external APIs, or create tasks in external project management tools.
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Catalogs are containers that group resources like groups, applications, and SharePoint sites. Access packages are defined inside catalogs to bundle the specific resources and roles a user needs to perform a task, and they are governed by assignment policies that control who can request, approve, and how long access lasts.
When a user requests an access package, the governance engine checks existing roles and group memberships. If the requested package contains incompatible permissions, the system automatically blocks the request, preventing conflicts of interest and maintaining regulatory compliance.
Organizations can use automatic assignment policies, also called birthright assignments, which evaluate user attributes like department or job title to automatically grant access packages when a user joins or changes roles. For exceptions, administrators can manually assign packages or trigger assignments using PowerShell scripts.
Administrators can integrate Azure Logic Apps to run custom workflows triggered by lifecycle events such as request creation, assignment grant, or impending expiration. For example, the system automatically triggers notification workflows fourteen days and one day before an assignment expires, which can send alerts, call external APIs, or create tasks in external tools.
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