A role consists of the relationship between the object, the responsible person/organization, and the role type that the role is based on.

In contrast to the concept of an authorized user or authorized user group which grants read/write permissions to an object, roles which are fulfilled by people or organizations may also be specified for an object. The role definition specifies the functional relationship or responsibility that a user or organization has to an object. The specification of a role is primarily for documentation purposes and provides additional information about stakeholders interested or responsible for the object. A person assigned to have a role for an object will not have read/write permissions based on the role definition. If the user shall have read/write permissions, they must be assigned to an authorized user group specified for the object.

Alfabet FastLane provides out-of-the-box role types that enable you to understand who is responsible for your IT assets in your IT portfolio. Additional role types that are relevant for your company can also be added.

In order for users to be able to specify roles for an object, you must create role types and assign them to the relevant object class. Only the role types that have been configured for the object class of the selected object will be available for the role definition. A role type may be defined for either a person and/or organization. The configuration of the role type will also determine whether only one person or organization or multiple persons or organizations may be defined per role type for the selected object. Preconfigured role types are available. They cannot be deleted. You can define additional role types to address the needs of your company.

Alfabet FastLane provides the following preconfigured role types for persons: Application Manager, Architect, Business Owner, IT Owner, Stakeholder 

Alfabet FastLane provides the following preconfigured role types for organizations: Business Owner, IT Owner, Operations, Stakeholder.

1. In the navigation pane, expand Configuration > Reference Data.
2. Click the Reference Data button and then click Role Types to open the view.
3. Create the new role types. After each role type is created, you must go to Configuration > Class Configuration Explorer and select the class that the role type shall be assigned to. Click Role Types to open the view.
4. Click New > Add Role Type to add the role type to the class.
5. To further define the role type, select it in the table and click Edit. You can define the following:
6. Select a role type in the data table and click Edit to define how the role may be defined for the objects:
   • Person Available: Select if roles based on this role type are fulfilled by a person.
   • Person Plurality: Select if multiple persons may be defined for roles based on this role type.
   • Organization Available: Select if roles based on this role type are fulfilled by an organization.
   • Organization Plurality: Select if multiple organizations may be defined for roles based on this role type.