Microsoft Viva Administration

Microsoft Viva is an employee experience platform (EXP) that integrates with Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams to provide tools for communication, knowledge, learning, and wellbeing. It consists of four primary modules: Viva Connections, Viva Insights, Viva Learning, and Viva Topics. Each module can be licensed individually or as part of the Viva Suite (which also includes Viva Glint and Viva Pulse, though these are less tested on MS-102). Viva is built on top of existing Microsoft 365 infrastructure, including SharePoint, Exchange, and Azure Active Directory (AAD).

To use any Viva module, users must have an eligible Microsoft 365 license (E1, E3, E5, Business Basic, Business Standard, or Business Premium). However, each Viva module requires an additional add-on license:

On the exam, you must know which modules are included with base licenses and which require add-ons. For example, Viva Connections is free (included), while Viva Topics is a paid add-on.

Viva Connections is a customizable app in Microsoft Teams that provides a curated feed of company news, resources, and tasks. It uses a SharePoint home site as its content source. To set up Viva Connections: 1. Designate a SharePoint home site (using the SharePoint admin center). 2. Create a Viva Connections dashboard using the SharePoint home site's dashboard web part. 3. Publish the dashboard and enable the Viva Connections app in Teams via the Teams admin center (under Manage apps).

Key settings include:

As an admin, you can control who sees the Viva Connections app via Teams app permission policies. By default, the app is available to all users.

Viva Insights provides personal and organizational wellbeing and productivity insights. It uses data from Microsoft 365 (email, calendar, Teams) to generate metrics like meeting hours, focus time, and network connections.

Administration is done via the Viva Insights admin center (https://admin.insights.microsoft.com). Key tasks:

Important exam point: The minimum group size for organizational insights is 10 by default but can be increased. If a group has fewer than 10 members, its data is suppressed.

Viva Learning aggregates learning content from internal (SharePoint, Teams) and external sources (LinkedIn Learning, Microsoft Learn, third-party content providers via connectors).

Configuration is done in the Microsoft 365 admin center under Settings > Org settings > Viva Learning. Steps: 1. Enable Viva Learning for the organization. 2. Add learning content sources: SharePoint folders, Teams channels, or third-party connectors (e.g., SAP SuccessFactors, Cornerstone OnDemand). 3. Manage permissions: Assign roles like Learning Administrator (can manage settings) and Learning Content Manager (can curate content).

On the exam, know that Viva Learning requires an add-on license for each user who accesses it. Also, third-party connectors require additional configuration (e.g., API keys).

Viva Topics uses AI to organize knowledge into topic pages. It scans SharePoint sites and other content sources to identify topics (people, projects, concepts) and generates topic cards and pages.

Administration is via the Microsoft 365 admin center > Setup > Viva Topics. Key steps: 1. Configure topic discovery: Specify which SharePoint sites to crawl (e.g., all sites, specific site collections). 2. Set permissions: Assign roles like Topic Administrator (full control), Topic Contributor (can edit topics), and Topic Viewer (can view topic pages). 3. Manage topic lifecycle: Topics go through states: Suggested (AI-generated), Confirmed (reviewed by a contributor), Published (visible to viewers), and Removed.

Important: Viva Topics has a 30-day discovery cycle. After initial configuration, it takes up to 30 days for topics to appear. Also, topic pages are stored in a centralized topic center (a SharePoint site created during setup).

All Viva modules integrate with Microsoft 365 services:

As an admin, you must ensure that the underlying services are properly configured. For example, if SharePoint content is not indexed, Viva Topics will not discover topics. The Viva admin center (https://admin.microsoft.com) provides a unified dashboard for managing all modules, but each module also has its own admin center (e.g., Viva Insights admin center).

While most Viva administration is done via admin centers, some tasks can be automated using PowerShell or Microsoft Graph. For example:

Set-MgUserLicense -UserId user@domain.com -AddLicenses @{SkuId = "VIVA_LEARNING_STANDARD" }

Get-VivaTopicsConfiguration

On the exam, you may need to know that Viva licensing SKU IDs are specific (e.g., VIVA_LEARNING_STANDARD, VIVA_INSIGHTS_PREMIUM).

A multinational corporation with 50,000 employees wants to improve internal communications. They deploy Viva Connections as their intranet in Teams. The admin sets up a SharePoint home site in the US, but regional offices in Europe and Asia want localized content. The solution: create multiple SharePoint communication sites for each region and use the Viva Connections dashboard to link to them. The admin must configure the feed to aggregate news from all regional sites. A common issue: the feed shows duplicate news if the same article is posted in multiple sites. To avoid this, the admin uses SharePoint news rollup web parts with unique IDs. Performance: Viva Connections is lightweight and does not require additional infrastructure. The main challenge is content governance—ensuring regional admins have permissions to manage their own news but not others.

A tech company wants to reduce burnout. They roll out Viva Insights Premium to analyze meeting culture. The admin enables advanced insights and sets up a 'meeting-free day' policy. However, the HR team wants to see data by department. The admin must configure the minimum group size to 10 to protect anonymity. A department with 8 people will not show data. The admin also assigns Insights Business Leader role to HR managers. One pitfall: managers can see individual data if they have the right permissions, which may violate privacy. The admin must carefully configure role-based access. The data refresh is daily, so changes to settings take up to 24 hours to reflect.

A retail chain uses Viva Learning to onboard new employees. They integrate LinkedIn Learning and internal training videos stored in SharePoint. The admin creates a learning path by curating content into a SharePoint folder. They assign the Learning Content Manager role to a training specialist. A problem: the SharePoint folder permissions are too restrictive, so users cannot see the content. The admin must ensure that the SharePoint folder is shared with 'Everyone except external users'. Additionally, third-party connectors (e.g., from Cornerstone) require API setup and may have usage limits. The admin monitors connector health via the admin center.