Patent ID: 7644008

Claim:
A method for assigning a role within an enterprise network through the interaction of a requester, an administrator, and an expert system including a networked system of computers comprising: maintaining by the expert system a list of roles available within a work group; automatically creating a reduced list of roles by the expert system by reducing the list of roles to only those roles available to a requester in the work group through interaction with an external human resources data store that stores information regarding which roles are available to the requester; receiving by the expert system, through interaction with the requester, a selection of a role from the reduced list of roles to which the requester wishes to be assigned, a selection of a group within the enterprise to which the selected role applies, and a selection of a project within the enterprise to which the selected role applies by; maintaining by the expert system a list of administrators that are authorized to approve role requests in the work group, group, and project; automatically creating a reduced list of administrators by the expert system by reducing the list of administrators to only those administrators available to the requester through interaction with an external human resources data store that stores information regarding which administrators are authorized to approve role requests for the requester, wherein the reduced list of administrators is based on the role, group, or project selected by the requester and includes administrators that belong to at least one of the same administrative work group as the requester, the same business unit as the requester, the same direct reporting chain as the requester, or the same geographic location as the requester; receiving by the expert system, through interaction with the requester, a selection of an administrator from the reduced list of administrators; submitting by the expert system, through interaction with the requester, a request for approval of the selected role to the selected administrator; and receiving by the expert system, through interaction with the selected administrator, an approval or denial of the request; and granting, by the expert system, the requester the selected role when the selected administrator approves the request for the selected role.