Usage and Impact of Model-Based User Authorization

Abstract

Identity management projects are often a great challenge for organizations. This is not due to the technical complexity of these projects, but due to the fact that managing access to resources and services involves a deep understanding of organizational responsibilities, workflows, and processes. The presented approach aims at enabling domain experts to deal with that complexity without the support of external expertise. To accomplish this, the approach involves the organizational dimension of role engineering. The integration of the organizational layer is achieved by seamlessly integrating model data from process optimization projects. Conceptual models carry knowledge about the structure of an organization and its processes. The role engineering process is driven by the information in these models. The presented approach is not limited to the technical level and thus allows a high degree of automation. This research deals with – in addition to a practical illustration – a theoretical answer to the question whether it is even possible to integrate semi-formal models in an automated transformation process of transformation and requirements for such a process. The aim of this paper is to give a first positive answer to this question and to provide a way to automatically generate a useful setting for configuring identity management systems based on semi-formal models.