Manage users and access permissions

Alfabet ensures that the right people will see the right information at the right time. You can create and manage user accounts and assign the users to user groups and user profiles.

User profiles are the entry point to Alfabet. Every user must access Alfabet with a user profile that has been assigned by the user administrator. Users may have more than one user profile depending on their responsibilities. The user profile will determine the set of functionality and views that a user can see as well as whether they have read-only vs. read/write permissions to the objects they see. The following preconfigured user profiles are available:

• Portfolio Admin

  This user profile is for superusers who are responsible to complete administrative tasks. It provides exclusive access to views that are required for user and account management, data import, administrative jobs, and configuration. All functionalities, views, and data in Alfabet available to other user profiles are also available to the Portfolio Admin user profile. A user with this user profile has read/write permissions to all data in the repository regardless of object authorization. Users with the Portfolio Admin user profile have the initial task to set up user accounts, configure relevant evaluation data that is not included in the standard product, and import data to the repository. This should typically be complete before other users in the user community access Alfabet with other user profiles.

• Portfolio Manager

  This user profile is for users who are responsible to input, maintain and analyze data relevant for IT portfolio management. It includes the data capture and maintenance views available to application managers and technology managers as well as data workbenches to capture and analyze data for all object classes in Alfabet. In addition, the Portfolio Manager user profile provides access to analytics based on relevant business questions. Users can view all assets in the repository and have read/write permissions to all assets that they have authorized access to via the authorized user or authorized user group definition. Click to understand the tasks relevant for the Portfolio Manager user profile.

  object class

  Alfabet is based on a class model that includes classes like Application, Business Capability, Component. etc. Each object is an instantiation of its object class. For example, an application like SAP@CRM System is an instantiation of the class Application.

  authorized user

  An authorized user has primary responsibility to maintain the data for an object. Typically this is the user that has created the object. The authorized user as well as members of authorized user groups have write permissions to objects they are responsible for.

  authorized user group

  An authorized user group is a set of users that have been granted write permissions to an object. More than one authorized user group may be specified for an object.

• Application Manager

  This user profile is for users who are responsible for capturing and maintaining data relevant for application portfolio management. Applications can be added to the IT repository and associated with existing data in the business, information, and technology architectures. Users have read/write permissions to assets that they have authorized access to via the authorized user or authorized user group definition. Click to understand the tasks relevant for the Application Manager user profile.

• Technology Manager

  This user profile is for users who are responsible for capturing and maintaining data relevant for technology portfolio management. Components can be added to the IT repository. Users have read/write permissions to objects that they have authorized access to via an authorized user group definition. Click to understand the tasks relevant for the Technology Manager user profile.

  authorized user group

  An authorized user group is a set of users that have been granted write permissions to an object. More than one authorized user group may be specified for an object.

• Portfolio Analyst

  This user profile is for users who are interested in seeing up-to-date analytics about the IT portfolio in order to understand the most business-relevant questions and make informed strategic decisions. Users can view all business questions and have read-only access permissions to all assets in the repository.Click to understand the tasks relevant for the Portfolio Analyst user profile.

About permissions to work with data:

The ability for a user to create a new asset such as an application, component, business capability, etc. in the repository or edit the existing assets is managed via several rules in Alfabet. An asset can only be edited if three requirements are fulfilled:

• The user accesses Alfabet with a user profile that provides read/write permissions.

  user profile

  A user profile determines the preconfigured set of functionalities and views in Alfabet. Every user must have at least one user profile to log in. The user profile will grant either read-only or read/write permissions to the objects that are visible to the user.

• The user is granted authorization to the asset because they are the authorized user of the asset or a member of an authorized user group that is specified for the asset.

  authorized user

  An authorized user has primary responsibility to maintain the data for an object. Typically this is the user that has created the object. The authorized user as well as members of authorized user groups have write permissions to objects they are responsible for.

  authorized user group

  An authorized user group is a set of users that have been granted write permissions to an object. More than one authorized user group may be specified for an object.

  If no authorized user or authorized user group is specified for an asset, all users will have read/write permissions to it.

• The asset has a release status that allows it to be edited. For example, an asset with a retired or sundowned release status can no longer be changed.

  release status

  A release status describes the state of approval or agreement about an object in the enterprise. For example, the release status of an application might be Draft, Described, Reviewed, Approved,Rejected, or Retired. Release statuses may determine whether an object can be edited. For example, an application with a release status set to Approved cannot be deleted.