Restructuring groups is the highest-risk routine change in a tenant, because there is no undo and every effect cascades through nesting. A safe restructure separates deciding from doing: model the change, review who gains and loses, and only then touch the directory.
Step 1: map what exists today#
You cannot predict a change against a structure you cannot see. Before planning, establish the current hierarchy, the license assignments riding on it, and the problem spots: circular references, deep chains, and overlapping groups that the restructure should fix rather than replicate.
Step 2: model the change before making it#
For each planned move, enumerate the consequences: which users gain access through the new parentage, which lose access through the old, and whose direct membership in a licensed group changes. Done manually this is transitive membership analysis per affected group, repeated for every step of the plan and kept consistent as the plan evolves.
Step 3: execute in order, then prove the result#
Order matters: moving a group before its license assignment is adjusted produces a window where users lose access. Execute as an ordered plan, then compare before and after states to confirm the change did exactly what the model predicted and nothing else.
VisualizerEngine
How VisualizerEngine does it
What-if simulation is this entire process as a feature: model a group move or license change, build multi-step scenarios, compare them side by side, and generate an ordered implementation plan. Every simulation shows the full blast radius, and snapshots taken before and after the change prove the result matches the plan.