Deviations

A deviation is what Octiga calls it when a tenant’s Microsoft 365 configuration stops matching a baseline. Every baseline gets one of four verdicts, and knowing what each means, and how current it is, tells you where a tenant stands.

PassingThe tenant's setting matches the baseline

DeviatedMicrosoft 365 no longer matches the baseline

PassingThe setting matches again — the deviation resolves

A deviation opens on the transition to Deviated and resolves on the transition back to Passing; it is recorded for the full retention period either way.

The four verdicts

Octiga compares each baseline’s actual state with what it should be, and reaches one of four verdicts:

Verdict	What it means
Passing	The setting matches the baseline.
Deviated	The setting doesn’t match the baseline. This is what opens a deviation.
Excluded	The tenant or user lacks the Microsoft licence this baseline needs — see below.
Not assessed	Octiga doesn’t yet have an answer — see below.

A deviation opens when a setting stops matching the baseline. It resolves when the setting comes back into line, or when the baseline itself changes underneath it; either closes the deviation.

Note

Deviations are counted, not ranked. Baselines carry no severity, priority or importance, so the count is the whole picture.

Where you see them

• The org-level tab’s status column, on a tenant’s Baselines screen.
• The user-level roster and the user’s own detail panel, as Passing, Deviated and Excluded facets you can filter by.
• A group’s member triage list, as the same red-or-green heatmap dots used elsewhere.
• The baseline editor itself, as a field-level Deviated tag naming the current value.
• The Alerts list, as an alert that’s always warning severity, whatever the baseline.

1

The org-level tab's status column, with a mix of Passing and Deviated baselines.

1. Status column — Passing or Deviated

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A user's detail panel, showing Passing, Deviated and Excluded rows.

1. Status column — Passing, Deviated or Excluded
2. Status filter

Excluded means unlicensed

Licence

Excluded means the tenant or user doesn’t have the Microsoft licence this baseline needs. It isn’t a failure: an unlicensed user is left out of evaluation rather than reported as failing a check they couldn’t meet. See Licence requirements for what each baseline needs.

If a baseline you expected isn’t evaluated for someone, the usual reason is that they don’t hold the licence it needs.

Not assessed

Sometimes Octiga doesn’t have an answer yet: no data has arrived, a read failed, the resource isn’t cached, or there’s no way to check this baseline right now. Octiga doesn’t treat this as Passing. It’s counted and shown with its reason, like any other verdict.

How fresh this is

Deviations update with sync, not live. Changes typically show within about an hour for directory and tenant-wide settings, and within about two hours for mailbox and authentication details when event monitoring is switched on for the tenant. A tenant without a usable audit-log signal is checked on a slower polling schedule instead. A change made directly in Microsoft 365 appears here after the next sync, or after an on-demand one. See How Octiga works for how sync works.

Retention

Resolved deviations are kept for 13 months, then removed.