To employ RBAC it is first necessary to identify a set of roles for the organization. These roles must accurately reflect the activities, functions, and responsibilities within the organization. Roles have two major components: the names of the job functions performed by IT users, and the permissions that enforce an access control policy. The definition of roles is a process of discovering and then engineering requirements for access control. A methodology for establishing a valid set of role names with assigned permissions is needed. This book is designed to assist organizations in establishing such a role engineering methodology before starting a role engineering effort. Previous practical experience is applied to provide practical guidance in defining roles and in structuring the roles for use in controlling access to IT resources.
