Abstract:
A technique for associating privileges to people within an organization involves: maintaining for each of a plurality of objects an identification of an owner; maintaining for each of the objects an identification of at least one privilege associated therewith; and defining a role associated with a selected owner, the role identifying a privilege set containing at least one of the privileges, and the role having a criteria that defines which of a plurality of subjects are eligible to enjoy the privilege set, each privilege in the privilege set being associated with one of the objects associated with the selected owner.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    This invention relates in general to the administration of privileges within an organization and, more particularly, to the association of privileges to people within an organization.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    In an organization such as a business enterprise, there are various different privileges which can be associated with various different employees. For example, virtually all of the employees will be assigned the privilege of physical access to the building in which they work. On the other hand, there are privileges which will be available to some employees but not others. For example, employees who deal with financial aspects of the organization will typically be granted the privilege of access to the financial software used by the organization, whereas other employees will not have access to this software. Consequently, organizations face the issue of how to associate a variety of different privileges to a variety of different employees in an efficient and accurate manner.  
           [0003]    A common traditional approach is to attempt to define a hierarchical model of the enterprise, primarily in terms in location, job function and/or organizational information. As a simple hypothetical example, a traditional enterprise may have an East facility, a Central facility and a West facility. Each of these three physical facilities may have a respective section of the overall sales department, a respective section of the overall production department, and respective section of the overall finance department. Each such section of each department may have a subset of employees who are identified as the clerical group of that department. Thus, there would be nine separate and distinct clerical groups, including the East sales clerical group, the East production clerical group, the East finance clerical group, the Central sales clerical group, the Central production clerical group, the Central finance clerical group, the West sales clerical group, the West production clerical group, and the West finance clerical group.  
           [0004]    If management decided that all of the clerical employees in the organization were entitled to enjoy some new privilege, then a complex and manually intensive procedure is followed in order to associate the new privilege with each of the nine different groups of clerical employees. Of course, this hypothetical example is much simpler than would be the case in a typical large corporation, especially where the employees who are to receive the new privilege fall into a number of different categories, rather than just a single category such as “clerical”. The situation is even more problematic where the established hierarchy does not include a block or node corresponding to the particular group of employees to whom the new privilege is to be associated. In that case, it may be necessary to associate the privilege to some or all of those employees on an employee-by-employee basis, which is extremely cumbersome and prone to errors.  
           [0005]    The traditional approach to administration of privileges is thus based on a model that does not accurately represent the enterprise in question, and that results in inefficient administrative and/or data management. The traditional approach is practical only for small businesses, or for businesses that assign privileges only on a high-level basis, or otherwise abstract the data structure describing the business. A further consideration is that the traditional approach typically grants several privileges to a specified group of employees, without regard to the fact there are different persons who are responsible for making the decisions regarding which employees will be allowed to enjoy the respective different privileges. A by-product of the traditional approach is that, due to abstraction of business structures in an attempt to administer a complex hierarchy, tradeoffs are commonly made that often lead to weaker security.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0006]    From the foregoing, it may be appreciated that a need has arisen for a method and apparatus for facilitating efficient assignment of privileges to subjects within an organization. According to one form of the present invention, a method and apparatus are provided to address this need, and involve: maintaining for each of a plurality of objects an identification of an owner; maintaining for each of the objects an identification of at least one privilege associated therewith; and defining a role associated with a selected owner, the role identifying a privilege set containing at least one of the privileges, and the role having a criteria that defines which of a plurality of subjects are eligible to enjoy the privilege set, each privilege in the privilege set being associated with one of the objects associated with the selected owner.  
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0007]    A better understanding of the present invention will be realized from the detailed description which follows, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:  
         [0008]    [0008]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the organizational structure of a hypothetical organization, and is utilized to achieve aspects of the present invention;  
         [0009]    [0009]FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a location hierarchy for the hypothetical organization of FIG. 1, and is utilized to achieve aspects of the present invention;  
         [0010]    [0010]FIG. 3 is a block diagram similar to FIG. 1, but with the addition of information about employees of the hypothetical organization;  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 4 is a block diagram similar to FIG. 2, but with the addition of information about employees of the hypothetical organization;  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 5 is a block diagram of selected portions of the hardware and software of a computer system which is used by the hypothetical organization and which implements aspects of the present invention; and  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 6 is an entity relationship diagram which provides a generalized view of various types of objects and the relationships between them, including types of objects and relationships which embody aspects of the present invention.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0014]    To facilitate a clear understanding of the present invention, the following explanation is presented in the context of a hypothetical company named Widget, Inc. Widget currently does business only in the United States, and is in the business of engineering, producing, marketing and distributing widgets. Widget is headquartered in Dallas, Tex., with other facilities in Houston, Tex. and Miami, Fla.  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the organizational structure  10  of Widget, Inc. The organization includes a parent  12 , and two divisions in the form of a sales division  13  and a production division  14 . The sales division  13  includes three subdivisions, which are the East sales subdivision  16 , the Central sales subdivision  17 , and the West sales subdivision  18 . The production division  14  also includes three subdivisions, which are engineering  21 , manufacturing  22 , and distribution  23 . The sales division  13  is also matrixed to the engineering subdivision  21  of the production division  14 , as indicated by the broken line in FIG. 1. The divisions  13 - 14  and subdivisions  16 - 18  and  21 - 23  are not separate corporate entities, but instead represent organizational departments which are all portions of the parent company  12 . However, it would alternatively be possible for one or more of the divisions  13 - 14  and/or subdivisions  16 - 18  and  21 - 23  to be separate corporations, without affecting the manner in which the present invention would be utilized by Widget, nc.  
         [0016]    For purposes of the following discussion, the word “owner” is not used to refer to the person or persons (such as stockholders) who have legal title to something. Instead, and as will become clear from the ensuing discussion, the word “owner” is used to refer to a person who has the power or control to make certain decisions regarding a given tangible or intangible “object”. An “object” is an entity such as a division, subdivision resource, data file, record, program, or person, which may contain information or processes. One example of a specific type of object is a “subject”, such as a person, application, or network. A subject is an object that becomes active and acts on one or more objects, for example by causing information to flow among objects, by altering an object, or by changing the state of an object. Another example of a specific type of object is a “technical object”, which is an entity of a technical nature that may be secured logically and sometimes physically, such as instances of networks, systems, applications (processes and data), and devices. Technical objects can sometimes be subjects.  
         [0017]    Each of the blocks in FIG. 1 is considered to be an object, and has an “owner”. In the case of Widget, each of the organizational blocks in FIG. 1 has a manager who is a respective employee of the company. Widget has decided that the manager of each organizational block will be the “owner” of that block or object. The name of the manager or owner of each block in FIG. 1 is set forth at the bottom of the block. TABLE 1 sets forth in tabular form the same organizational information which is expressed diagrammatically in FIG. 1.  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a hierarchy of location information regarding the physical facilities used by Widget. In this regard, Widget uses five buildings disposed in four different locations. In particular, Widget has a Headquarters campus in Dallas, Texas, which includes two building  32  and  33 , each of which has five rooms. Several miles north of this campus, Widget has a North Dallas campus, with a single building  36  that has two rooms. In Houston, Tex., Widget has a Buffalo Bayou campus with a single building  37  that has three rooms. In Miami, Fla., Widget has a Distribution Center campus with a single building  38  that has three rooms. TABLE 2 sets forth in tabular form the same location information which is shown diagrammatically in FIG. 2.  
         [0019]    Each block in FIG. 2 is an “object” of the type discussed above, and has a designated employee who serves as its “owner”. That is, each room has an owner, each building has an owner, each campus has an owner, each city has an owner, each state has an owner, and each country has an owner. FIG. 2 sets forth the names of the various Widget employees who serve as these owners.  
         [0020]    The Widget company has four types of job positions or job codes, which are (1) manager, (2) engineer, (3) clerk and (4) labor (physical labor). TABLE 3 sets forth these positions or job codes in tabular form. Each such job code is an “object”, and each is associated with a designated employee who serves its “owner”.  
         [0021]    The Widget company has 19 employees, all of whom are listed in TABLE 4. Each of these employees is a “subject” of the type discussed above. Each employee or subject is thus an object, and has an “owner”, where the “owner” for each employee is a person who is a supervisory manager as to that employee. The second column of TABLE 4 identifies the owner of each employee. The third column identifies the organizational block in FIG. 1 to which each employee is assigned. The fourth column in TABLE 4 identifies the job code assigned to each employee. The fifth column in TABLE 4 identifies the particular room in the location hierarchy (FIG. 2) to which each employee is assigned.  
         [0022]    A few comments regarding TABLE 4 will be helpful. First, it will be noted that Bob Roberts is identified as his own owner or manager. This is because he is the president of Widget, and thus the most senior employee, who is not supervised by any other employee. In addition, it will be noted that Trudy Black is assigned to two different portions of the organization and two different rooms. Her primary responsibility is with the distribution organization, but she has frequent temporary assignments to manufacturing, when demand is high. Further, it will also be noted that Sidney Fowler is an engineer who is not assigned to any particular room in the location hierarchy. This is because he is a sales and support engineer who travels for Widget on a full-time basis, and thus has no assigned location.  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 3 is a block diagram similar to FIG. 1, but has the names of all employees and their job position added in the respective organizational block to which they are assigned. FIG. 4 is a block diagram similar to FIG. 2, but has the names of employees added in the blocks representing rooms, along with an indication of the job code for each employee, and an indication of the organizational section to which each employee is assigned. It will be noted that FIG. 4 includes the names of all employees except Sidney Fowler. As explained above, Sidney Fowler is not assigned to any room, and his name thus does not appear in FIG. 4.  
         [0024]    It will be noted that, in the case of the Widget company, there is a degree of correlation between the organizational hierarchy of FIG. 1 and the location hierarchy of FIG. 2. For example, the North Dallas campus is dedicated to the manufacturing subdivision, the Buffalo Boyou campus in Houston is dedicated to the engineering subdivision, and the Distribution Center campus in Miami is dedicated to the distribution subdivision. However, it would alternatively be possible for the organizational hierarchy have very little correlation to the location hierarchy. For example, manufacturing, engineering and distribution could each have several groups of employees respectively working in various different locations. This is why the organization hierarchy of FIG. 1 and the location hierarchy of FIG. 2 are treated as separate and independent hierarchies for purposes of the present invention.  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 5 is a block diagram of various hardware and software aspects of a computer system  101  utilized by Widget. The computer system  101  includes a corporate directory  103  that contains the subject data of TABLE 4, the location data of TABLE 2 and FIG. 2, and the organizational data of TABLE 1 and FIG. 1. The job code data of TABLE 3 is stored at  104 . Workforce profiles are stored at  106 , and will be explained in more detail later. Owner-scoped roles (OSRs) are stored at  107 , and will also be explained in more detail later. Privilege information is stored at  108 , and will be explained later.  
         [0026]    The system  101  includes various types of standard software systems used by Widget, including an Internet Web site  121 , a billing program  122 , a sales and support program  123 , a public Internet firewall  126 , and a human resources (HR) system  127 . In addition, there is a financial system  131 , a computer aided drafting (CAD) system  132 , and a physical access system  133  which is used to administer the extent to which employees have physical access to the five buildings  32 - 38  (FIG. 2) used by Widget.  
         [0027]    The computer system  101  further includes a role administration system  143  which is used, among other things, to administer the role profiles stored at  107 . The role administration system  143  has several user interfaces, including an interface  146  used to administer the location and organization data stored at  103 , and an interface  147  used to administer HR information such as the HR system  127  and the subject data stored at  103 . A further interface  148  is used to administer the workforce profiles stored at  106 , and an interface  149  is used to administer the role profiles stored at  107 . The computer system  101  further includes an enterprise security administration system  152  with a user interface  154 , one capability of which is administration of the privilege information stored at  108 .  
         [0028]    TABLE 5 presents a selected portion of the privilege information stored at  108 . A privilege involves a degree of permission or authorization to interact with a specified object. In this regard, the various software systems shown in the lower portion of FIG. 5 are forms of objects that each have an owner, and TABLE 5 lists several of these objects and the associated employee who serves as the owner. Each of these software systems is configured to allow various different levels of access. For example, with respect to CAD files in the CAD system  132  that relate to a given project, some persons may be provided with “read” access so they can view the files but not alter them, whereas other persons will be provided with “write” access so they can both view and alter the files. These different levels of access represent different levels of privilege.  
         [0029]    With reference to FIG. 2, a different type of object listed in TABLE 5 is each campus of Widget, including the Headquarters campus, the North Dallas campus, the Houston Buffalo Bayou campus, and the Miami Distribution Center campus. The capability of an employee of Widget to enter a building at any given campus represents a privilege to have physical access to that building. Thus, as indicated in TABLE 5, a physical access privilege is associated with each campus. The privileges listed in TABLE 5 do not constitute all of the privileges that exist for Widget company, but only a representative sample.  
         [0030]    One of the features of the present invention is the manner in which privileges, such as those listed in TABLE 5, are granted or revoked as to subjects such as the employees of Widget. This is effected through use of the role profiles stored at  107  (FIG. 5). TABLEs 6-13 are examples of profiles for several different roles which are used by Widget. Beginning with TABLE 6, a role includes a unique identification (ID) number, which is “001”. The role further includes a descriptive name, which is “Corporate Systems Manager Accounts”. Each role is a type of object, and therefore has an owner. In the case of the role shown in TABLE 6, the owner is employee Sally Johnson.  
         [0031]    Each role is associated with one or more privileges. With reference to TABLEs 5 and 6, it will be noted that the role of TABLE 6 can provide access at the “Manager Account” level to each of the HR system  127  (FIG. 5), the billing system  122 , and the financial system  131 . If a given role lists more than one privilege, then all of the privileges in that particular role must have the same owner, who must also be the owner of the role. Stated differently, the only person who is permitted to create a role profile is the person who is the owner of each object targeted by a privilege identified in that role profile, and the person who creates the role profile becomes its owner. This is why the roles disclosed herein are referred to as “owner-scoped” roles. As one specific example, it will be noted that Sally Johnson is the owner of the role profile shown in TABLE 6, and that each of the three privileges identified in this role profile are associated with objects (software systems) for which Sally Johnson is also the owner, as evident from TABLE 5. This ensures that the owner of a given role profile, which identifies one or more privileges, is also the owner of each object to which the privilege(s) apply, so that there is no possibility for conflict between a person who creates and maintains a role profile so as to grant or revoke privileges, and a person who is responsible for any object to which those privileges relate.  
         [0032]    Still referring to TABLE 6, the role includes one or more role appropriators, which define the subjects (such as employees) that are to receive the benefit of the specified privileges. Appropriators do not identify subjects by name, but instead identify groups of subjects by job code, location, organization, and/or other organizational data, using simple Boolean expressions. In this regard, TABLE 14 sets forth some sample appropriators, with an explanation of the meaning of each. In the exemplary role of TABLE 6, the specified privileges will be assigned to employees who have the job code of manager, and who are below (rather than in) the sales and production divisions  13  and  14  of FIG. 1. Thus, with reference to FIG. 1, the subjects who will receive the benefit of the privileges specified in the role of TABLE 6 are Carl Owens, Don Travis, Mel Fry, James Jones, Fred Smith and Anne West.  
         [0033]    In TABLE 6, the final item is an indication of whether the role is an “offered” type of role or a “granted” type of role. The role of TABLE 6 is indicated to be a “granted” type of role. In the case of a “granted” role, the subjects who meet the definition of the role appropriator are automatically and unconditionally assigned the specified privileges. In contrast, in the case of an “offered” role, the subjects falling within the role appropriator do not automatically and unconditionally receive the specified privileges, but instead receive the privileges only if specific managerial approval has been provided, in a manner discussed later.  
         [0034]    TABLE 7 shows a different exemplary role, which will grant “Executive Account” level privileges within the HR system, billing system and financial system to any subjects who have a job code of “manager” and who are assigned to organizations at or above the sales or production organizations. Thus, with reference to FIG. 1, this role will result in the automatic assignment of the specified privileges to Bob Roberts, Derrick Evans and Robert Dennis.  
         [0035]    TABLE 8 represents another exemplary role, which will offer the “User Account” privilege for the public Internet firewall to any subjects who are not assigned a job code of “labor”, and who are anywhere within the Widget organization. At Widget, physical laborers are not provided with computers, and therefore need no access to the public Internet through the firewall. It will be noted that this is an “offered” type of role. Thus, subjects do not automatically receive the specified privilege, but instead receive the privilege only if they have managerial approval, which can be provided in a manner discussed later. This is because use of the public Internet may involve actual monetary expense, such as charges from an Internet Service Provider (ISP). Managers are thus given the ability to control whether or not a portion of their budgets will be used for this type of expense. In the case of the role of TABLE 9, the specified privilege is “offered” (pending managerial approval) to all employees other than those with a job code of “labor” (Ali Murray, Mike Little and Trudy Black).  
         [0036]    [0036]FIG. 9 represents a further role which will grant to all subjects within the Widget organization the “Employee Account” privilege within the Web site, and the privileges of physical access each of the campuses. In this regard, even physical laborers are given access to employee areas of the Widget Web site, so that they can access information through the Internet from home, or from kiosks placed on plant or warehouse floors.  
         [0037]    TABLE 10 is an example of a further role which grants the power to read but not to change various CAD files. These privileges are granted to any subject who has a job code of “engineer”, but who is not in the engineering subdivision. With reference to FIG. 1, this role will result in the automatic assignment of the specified privileges to a single employee (Justin Kemp).  
         [0038]    TABLE 11 represents a different role, which will grant the privileges of both reading and writing various CAD files to every person who has a job code of “engineer”, and who is within the engineering subdivision of the Widget organization. With reference to FIG. 1, this role will result in the automatic assignment of the specified privileges to two employees (Terry Smith and Sidney Fowler).  
         [0039]    TABLE 12 represents another role, which will grant the “Executive Account” privilege to the sales support system to any subjects who have a job code of “manager”, and who are in and above the production and sales divisions. With reference to FIG. 1, this role will result in the automatic assignment of the specified privilege to Bob Roberts, Derrick Evans and Robert Dennis.  
         [0040]    TABLE 13 represents a further role, which will grant the “Sales Manager Account” privilege within the sales support system to any subjects who are in organizations below the sales organization. With reference to FIG. 1, This role will result in the automatic assignment of the specified privilege to Carl Owens, Don Travis, Mel Frey, James Jones, Terry Smith and Sidney Fowler. Note that the three employees in engineering receive these privileges because the engineering subdivision is matrixed to the sales division, as indicated by the broken line in FIG. 1.  
         [0041]    As discussed above in association with TABLE 6, each role can be either an “offered” type of role or a “granted” type of role. A “granted” type of role automatically assigns each of the specified privileges to all qualifying subjects. In contrast, in the case of an “offered” type of role, qualifying subjects receive the specified privileges only if they have managerial approval. In the disclosed embodiment, managerial approval can be granted through the creation of one of the workforce profiles stored at  106  in FIG. 5.  
         [0042]    TABLE 15 is example of a workforce profile. A workforce profile is created by a manager, in order to identify a group of people (subjects) who work for that manager, and in order to identify an existing role. The workforce profile serves as an indication that the subjects who are specified in the workforce and who also meet the criteria of the role have managerial approval to enjoy the specified privilege(s) of that role.  
         [0043]    In more detail, TABLE 15 shows that the workforce profile includes a unique identification number, which in this example is “001.” The profile also has a descriptive name, which is “Eligible Public Internet Personnel”. The workforce profile is a form of object, and thus has an owner, who in this case is Bob Roberts. Stated differently, Bob Roberts is the owner because he is the manager who created this workforce profile in order to provide managerial approval for a specified group of subjects within his managerial domain to enjoy certain privileges if specified conditions are met.  
         [0044]    The workforce profile in TABLE 15 also includes an identification of the role to which it applies, which in this case is the role “003” shown in TABLE 8 and discussed above. The last item in the workforce profile is an appropriator, which has a form of the type discussed above in association with TABLE 14. The appropriator must identify only employees who are within the managerial domain of the owner of the workforce profile, and the role administration system  143  (FIG. 5) verifies that this condition is met before it allows the the workforce profile to actually be created. Thus, with reference to FIG. 1, James Jones manages engineering  21 , and can therefore create a workforce which affects himself, Terry Smith and/or Sidney Fowler. On the other hand, he cannot create a workforce which affects any other employee of any Widget organization, because he does not manage any of those other employees.  
         [0045]    Various events can result in changes to various types of information maintained within the computer system  101  of FIG. 5, including roles and workforces. Examples of these events include newly-hired employees, employees who depart, new or removed organizations, changes in the existing organizational structure, security policy changes, new or removed locations, new or removed job codes, new or removed privileges, and so forth. In many situations, the role administration system  143  of FIG. 5 can respond to events by automatically effecting updates which, in preexisting systems, required manually intensive analysis and data entry.  
         [0046]    TABLE 16 is an example of an event definition which the HR administration interface  147  passes through to the role administration system  143  in response to the hiring of a new employee. The profile of TABLE 16 has a unique identification code, formed by concatenating the date, the time, and a three-digit numerical value. The next item in the profile is the name of the new employee, which in this case is “Julie Stroud”. The next item in the profile identifies the type of event, which in this case is a “new hire”. The final item in the profile identifies one or more types of data that are affected by this event.  
         [0047]    In this case, the profile of FIG. 16 indicates that the new employee&#39;s job code is “engineer”, that the new employee is assigned to the “engineering organization, and that the new employee is assigned to room H-002. The HR administration  147  uses the information in the profile of TABLE 16 to update the subject information stored at  103  and shown in TABLE 4. The role administration system  143  searches the role profile data stored at  107  and the workforce profile data stored at  106 , in order to determine which roles are to be appropriated to the new employee, and thus which privileges are to be enjoyed by the new employee. In the context of the present hypothetical, the roles appropriated to Julie Stroud will be those shown in TABLEs 8, 9, 11 and 13. Thus, the administration  143  will automatically ensure that new employee Julie Stroud starts work with access to all of the privileges granted by these roles, so that all privileges needed to do her job are immediately available to her on her first day, without any need for extensive manual updating on a piecemeal basis over several days or weeks.  
         [0048]    TABLE 17 shows another example of an event profile, resulting from a decision by Anne West to resign and take a different position with another company. In response to this event, the HR administration  147  will automatically update the subject data stored at  103 . The role administration system  143  will disassociate from Anne West all of the privileges which she previously enjoyed pursuant to the roles discussed above in association with TABLEs 6, 8 and 9.  
         [0049]    Due to Anne West&#39;s departure, Robert Dennis decides to promote Michael Little into the position that had previously been held by Anne West. As a result, the HR administration interface  147  generates the event profile shown in TABLE 18, and automatically updates the subject data stored at  103 . The role administration system  143  automatically evaluates the workforce and role profiles, in order to disassociate from Mike Little any privileges that he is no longer entitled to enjoy, and in order to associate to Mike Little any new privileges that he has now become entitled to enjoy.  
         [0050]    As discussed above, role profiles such as those shown in FIGS.  6 - 13  are each an object. Therefore, it is possible to define a privilege relating to a role profile, which is the privilege of “ownership” of that role profile. In that case, when Mike Little is promoted to replace Anne West, the ownership privileges previously held by Anne West could be automatically passed to Mike Little by the role administration system  143 .  
         [0051]    The foregoing discussion has been presented in the specific context of the hypothetical company called Widget, Inc., which is a relatively small and simple company. However, the principles of the invention also apply to and work well within much more complex organizations. In this regard, the framework underlying the invention can be presented in a more generalized form. In particular, FIG. 6 is an interrelationship diagram, where each of the major blocks represents one or more instances of a particular type of item. In this regard, reference numeral  201  designates the set of all objects. Specific types of objects include subjects  202 , workforces  203 , roles  206 , privileges  207 , appropriators  208 , and technical objects  209 .  
         [0052]    With respect to appropriators  208 , each appropriator has a cardinality type  211 , which is either singular or pluralistic. Each subject may be associated with only one appropriator of the singular cardinality type, but may be associated with one or more appropriators of the pluralistic cardinality type. In addition, each appropriator  208  has a structure type  212 , which can either be linear, hierarchical, or network. Appropriators of the linear type are not related to each other. Appropriators of the hierarchical type may have only one parent of the same type, but may have one or more children of the same type. Appropriators of the network type may have one or more parents of the same type, and/or one or more children of the same type. Each role  206  has an appropriation type  216  which, as discussed above, is either “offered” or “granted”.  
         [0053]    In FIG. 6, the relationships between objects are represented by lines which have symbols at each end to indicate required or permissive characteristics of the relationship. For example, one end of the line  241  has multiple lines in the form of a “crow&#39;s foot”  242  in order to indicate that a given object  201  can be associated with multiple privileges  207 . At its opposite end, the line  241  ends in a single line  243 , to indicate that a given privilege  207  can only be associated with a single object  201 . Turning to the relationship line  246 , the circle  247  near one end is an indication that an identification of one or more roles  206  is optional, whereas the crossbar  248  with no circle near the opposite end is an indication that at least one appropriator  208  must be identified. The relationship lines in FIG. 6 are created and terminated manually, except for the relationship lines  256  and  257 , which are established and maintained automatically by the role administration system  143  of FIG. 5.  
         [0054]    A given privilege technically targets only one object, but indirect or implied privileges may result if the targeted object contains one or more objects. An owner-scoped role  206  is a set of privileges with common ownership of the target objects, and with common criteria specifying which subjects should be associated with the specified privileges. The owner-scoped role  206  enables roles to be managed as sets of privileges, rather than as positions or jobs. This avoids problems associated with the fact that owners or managers of positions and jobs are often not the persons authorized to make privilege assignment decisions. Instead, it is the owners of the objects targeted by privileges who can decide which subjects will have permission to act on their objects. Since each owner-scoped role is “scoped-down” to a set of privileges that target only objects having a common owner, each owner-scoped role has a single owner with clear authority to determine who will enjoy the privileges addressed by that role. A workforce  203  is a set of subjects having common ownership (common management), and having common criteria to identify what role or roles are demanded for the specified subject.  
         [0055]    The organizational hierarchy of FIGS. 1 and 3 is maintained in a manner conforming to the interrelationship diagram of FIG. 6, as is the location hierarchy of FIGS. 2 and 4. Further, the job code data of TABLE 3, subject data of TABLE 4, privilege data of TABLE 5, role profiles of TABLEs 6-13, and workforce profile of TABEL 15 are all maintained in a manner conforming to the interrelationship diagram of FIG. 6.  
         [0056]    The present invention provides a number of advantages. One such advantage is that a wide variety of organizations, including large-scale business enterprises, can efficiently and automatically handle the association of people to roles in support of security, provisioning, workflow and other functions. In this regard, the owner-scoped role enables roles to be managed as sets of privileges, rather than as positions or jobs. The owners or managers of positions or jobs are usually not the persons authorized to make typical decisions regarding privilege assignments. Consequently, the owner-scoped roles permit the owner of targeted objects to decide who should have permission to act on those objects. This is because the owner-scoped role is “scoped down” to only privileges that target one or more objects owned by the same person.  
         [0057]    A further advantage results from the provision of roles which can be offered to specified persons subject to managerial approval, and the provision of workforce definitions to provide managerial approval to selected persons in an efficient manner. The present invention can provide advantages to an organization in a variety of different areas, such as security administration and provisioning, security access controls, system/network load balancing, directory data structuring and leveragability, mail distribution, and workflow.  
                                       TABLE 1                           ORGANIZATION DATA                PARENT            ORGANIZATION   MANAGER (OWNER)   ORGANIZATION (S)               Widget, Inc.   Bob Roberts   —       Sales   Derrick Evans   Widget, Inc.       Production   Robert Dennis   Widget, Inc.       East Sales   Carl Owens   Sales       Central Sales   Don Travis   Sales       West Sales   Mel Frey   Sales       Engineering   James Jones   Production (and matrixed               to Sales)       Manufacturing   Fred Smith   Production       Distribution   Anne West   Production                  
 
         [0058]    [0058]                                               TABLE 2                           LOCATION DATA            LOCATION   DESCRIP-            NAME   OWNER   PARENT   LEVEL   TION               U.S.A.   Sally   —   Country   —           Johnson       Texas   Sally   U.S.A.   State   —           Johnson       Florida   Sally   U.S.A.   State   —           Johnson       Dallas   Sally   Texas   City   —           Johnson       Houston   Sally   Texas   City   —           Johnson       Miami   Sally   Florida   City   —           Johnson       Headquarters   Sally   Dallas   Campus   —           Johnson       North Dallas   Sally   Dallas   Campus   —           Johnson       Buffalo Bayou   Sally   Houston   Campus   —           Johnson       Distribution   Sally   Miami   Campus   —       Center   Johnson       Building 1   Bob   Headquarters   Building   Executive &amp;           Roberts           Administrative                       Offices       Building 2   Bob   Headquarters   Building   Sales           Roberts           Center       North Dallas   Robert   North Dallas   Building   Manufacturing           Dennis           Center       Buffalo   Robert   Buffalo Bayou   Building   Engineering       Bayou   Dennis           Center       Distribution   Robert   Distribution   Building   Distribution       Center   Dennis   Center       Center       1-111   Robert   Building 1   Room   Executive           Dennis           Suite       1-112   Robert   Building 1   Room   Cubicle           Dennis       1-113   Robert   Building 1   Room   Office           Dennis       1-211   Robert   Building 1   Room   Executive           Dennis           Suite       1-212   Robert   Building 1   Room   Cubicle           Dennis       2-111   Derrick   Building 2   Room   Office           Evans       2-112   Derrick   Building 2   Room   Office           Evans       2-113   Derrick   Building 2   Room   Office           Evans       2-211   Derrick   Building 2   Room   Executive           Evans           Suite       2-212   Derrick   Building 2   Room   Cubicle           Evans       D-001   Fred   North Dallas   Room   Office           Smith       D-002   Fred   North Dallas   Room   Plant Floor           Smith       H-001   Robert   Buffalo Bayou   Room   Office           Dennis       H-002   James   Buffalo Bayou   Room   Engineering           Jones           Lab       H-003   James   Buffalo Bayou   Room   Cubicle           Jones       M-001   Anne   Distribution   Room   Office           West   Center       M-002   Anne   Distribution   Room   Cubicle           West   Center       M-003   Anne   Distribution   Room   Warehouse           West   Center       Floor                    
         [0059]    [0059]                             TABLE 3                           JOB CODE DATA                JOB CODE NAME   MANAGER (OWNER)                       Clerk   Sally Johnson           Manager   Sally Johnson           Engineer   Sally Johnson           Labor   Sally Johnson                        
         [0060]    [0060]                                                       TABLE 4                           SUBJECT DATA            SUBJECT   MANAGER   JOB   LOCA-            NAME   (OWNER)   ORGANIZATION   CODE   TION               Bob   Bob   Widget, Inc.   Manager   1-211       Roberts   Roberts       Sally   Bob   Widget, Inc.   Clerk   1-113       Johnson   Roberts       Anne   Bob   Widget, Inc.   Clerk   1-212       Tucker   Roberts       Derrick   Bob   Sales   Manager   2-211       Evans   Roberts       Jerry   Dale Evans   Sales   Clerk   2-212       Reece       Robert   Bob   Production   Manager   1-111       Dennis   Roberts       Chris   Robert   Production   Clerk   1-112       Faber   Dennis       Carl Owens   Derrick   East Sales   Manager   2-111           Evans       Don Travis   Derrick   Central Sales   Manager   2-112           Evans       Mel Frey   Derrick   West Sales   Manager   2-113           Evans       James   Robert   Engineering   Manager   H-001       Jones   Dennis       Terry   James   Engineering   Engineer   H-002       Smith   Jones       Fred Smith   Robert   Manufacturing   Manager   D-001           Dennis       Justin   Fred Smith   Manufacturing   Engineer   D-002       Kemp       Ali Murray   Fred Smith   Manufacturing   Labor   D-002       Anne West   Robert   Distribution   Manager   M-001           Dennis       Mike   Anne West   Distribution   Labor   M-003       Little       Trudy   Anne West   Distribution   Labor   M-003       Black       Manufacturing       D-002       Sidney   James   Engineering   Engineer   —       Fowler   Jones                    
         [0061]    [0061]                             TABLE 5                           PRIVILEGE DATA            OBJECT NAME   MANAGER (OWNER)   PRIVILEGE OPTIONS               HR System   Sally Johnson   Employee Account               Manager Account               Executive Account               Administrator               Account       Billing System   Sally Johnson   Manager Account               Executive Account               Administrator               Account       Sales Support   Derrick Evans   Sales Manager       System       Account               Executive Account               Administrator               Account       Financial System   Sally Johnson   Manager Account               Executive Account               Administrator               Account       CAD System   James Jones   Engineer Account               Administrator               Account       Project X CAD   James Jones   Read       Files       Write       Project Y CAD   James Jones   Read       Files       Write       Project Z CAD   James Jones   Read       Files       Write       Public Internet   Sally Johnson   User Account       Firewall       Administrator       (Outbound)       Account       Web Site   Sally Johnson   Public Account               Employee Account               Administrator               Account       Headquarters   Sally Johnson   Physical Access       Campus       North Dallas   Sally Johnson   Physical Access       Campus       Houston Campus   Sally Johnson   Physical Access       Miami Campus   Sally Johnson   Physical Access                    
         [0062]    [0062]                             TABLE 6                       ROLE PROFILE 001                                    Role ID:   001           Name:   Corporate Systems Manager               Accounts           Owner:   Sally Johnson           Privileges:   HR System, Manager Account               Billing System, Manager               Account               Financial System, Manager               Account           Role Appropriator   Job Code = Manager and               (Organization &lt; Sales or               Organization &lt; Production)           Offered or Granted:   Granted                        
         [0063]    [0063]                             TABLE 7                       ROLE PROFILE 002                                    Role ID:   002           Name:   Corporate Systems Executive               Accounts           Owner:   Sally Johnson           Privileges:   HR System, Executive               Account               Billing System, Executive               Account               Financial System, Executive               Account           Role Appropriator:   Job Code = Manager and               (Organization &gt;= Sales or               Organization &gt;= Production)           Offered or Granted:   Granted                        
         [0064]    [0064]                             TABLE 8                       ROLE PROFILE 003                                    Role ID:   003           Name:   Public Internet Firewall               User Accounts           Owner:   Sally Johnson           Privileges:   Public Internet Firewall,               User Account           Role Appropriator:   Job Code &lt;&gt; Physical Labor               and Organization &lt;= Widget,               Inc.           Offered or Granted:   Offered                        
         [0065]    [0065]                             TABLE 9                       ROLE PROFILE 004                                    Role ID:   004           Name:   Widget, Inc. Employee Privileges           Owner:   Sally Johnson           Privileges:   Widget.com Web Site, Employee               Account               Physical Access to Headquarters               Campus               Physical Access to North Dallas               Campus               Physical Access to Buffalo Boyou               Campus               Physical Access to Distribution               Center Campus           Role Appropriator:   Organization &lt;= Widget, Inc.           Offered or   Granted           Granted:                        
         [0066]    [0066]                             TABLE 10                       ROLE PROFILE 005                                    Role ID:   005           Name:   Read Access to Engineering Assets           Owner   James Jones           Privileges   CAD System, Engineer Account               Project X CAD Files, Read               Project Y CAD Files, Read               Project Z CAD Files, Read           Role Appropriator   Job Code = Engineer and               Organization &lt;&gt; Engineering           Offered or Granted   Granted                        
         [0067]    [0067]                             TABLE 11                       ROLE PROFILE 006                                    Role ID:   006           Name:   Write Access to Engineering Assets           Owner   James Jones           Privileges   CAD System, Engineer Account               Project X CAD Files, Write               Project Y CAD Files, Write               Project Z CAD Files, Write           Role Appropriator   Job Code = Engineer and               Organization = Engineering           Offered or Granted   Granted                        
         [0068]    [0068]                             TABLE 12                       ROLE PROFILE 007                                    Role ID:   007           Name:   Executive Access to Sales Assets           Owner   Derrick Evans           Privileges   Sales Support System, Executive               Account           Role Appropriator   Job Code = Manager and               (Organization &gt;= Production or               Organization &gt;= Sales)           Offered or Granted   Granted                        
         [0069]    [0069]                             TABLE 13                       ROLE PROFILE 008                                    Role ID:   008           Name:   Sales Manager Access to Sales Assets           Owner   Derrick Evans           Privileges   Sales Support System, Sales Manager               Account           Role Appropriator   Organization &lt; Sales           Offered or Granted   Granted                        
         [0070]    [0070]                             TABLE 14                           APPROPRIATOR LOGIC                SAMPLE APPROPRIATORS   MEANING                       Organization &lt;= Production   Specified privilege set               should be assigned to anyone               in Widget&#39;s production               (including engineering,               manufacturing and               distribution).           Organization = Production   Specified privilege set               should be assigned only to               owner/manager of Widget&#39;s               production.           Organization &gt; Production   Specified privilege set               should be assigned to anyone               in the organizational               structure above production.           Organization &lt;= Production   Specified privilege set           and Location &lt;= Buffalo   should be assigned to anyone           Bayou campus   in Widget&#39;s production who               is also based in the Buffalo               Bayou campus.           Organization &lt;= Production   Specified privilege set           and Location &lt;&gt; Buffalo   should be assigned to anyone           Bayou   in Widget&#39;s production who               is not based in the Buffalo               Bayou campus.           Organization &lt;&gt; Production   Specified privilege set           or   should be assigned to anyone           Location &lt;&gt; Buffalo Bayou   not in Widget&#39;s production               organization or not in the               Buffalo Bayou campus.           Location &lt;= Buffalo Bayou   Specified privilege set           and   should be assigned to anyone           Job Code = Engineer   in Widget&#39;s Buffalo Bayou               campus who is assigned the               job code of “engineer”.                        
         [0071]    [0071]                             TABLE 15                       WORKFORCE PROFILE                                    Workforce ID:   001           Name:   Eligible Public Internet Personnel           Owner:   Bob Roberts           Role:   003 (Public Internet Firewall User               Accounts)           Workplace   Organization &lt;= Widget Inc.           Appropriator:                        
         [0072]    [0072]                             TABLE 16                       NEW HIRE EVENT                                    Event ID:   08.02.2002-16:09:58-001           Subject ID:   Julie Stroud           Event Type:   New Hire           Affected Profile   Job Code = Engineer           Data:   Organization = Engineering               Location = H-002                        
         [0073]    [0073]                             TABLE 17                       EMPLOYEE DEPARTURE EVENT                                    Event ID:   08.04.2002-08:10:36-001           Subject ID:   Anne West           Event Type:   Departure           Affected Profile   Job Code = Manager           Data:   Organization = Distribution               Location = M-001                        
         [0074]    [0074]                             TABLE 18                       PROFILE CHANGE EVENT                                    Event ID:   08.02.2002-09:18:12-001           Subject ID:   Mike Little           Event Type:   Profile Change           Affected Profile   Job Code = Manager           Data:   Organization = Distribution               Location = M-001                        
         [0075]    Although one embodiment has been illustrated and described in detail, it will be understood that various substitutions and alterations are possible without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the following claims.