[WG-UMA] Small business scenarios to consider
Holodnik, Tom
Here are some scenarios that might inform your thinking about the UMA workflow and implementation on WRAP. Some of these needs might be met in features provided by WRAP, UMA, or in policy expressions enforced by the UMA Access Manager (or WRAP Authorization Service).
1. Small business owner delegates to contractor. Small business owners often hire accountants to operate payroll and manage payroll taxes for their business.
a. It’s common for small business owners to contract with an accountant to conduct payroll and manage payroll taxes.
b. The accounting firm may merge or a partnership may dissolve, in which case, the small business owner must review all access provided by the Authorization Service for his company and terminate those that are no longer appropriate.
2. A contractor creates protected resources for a small business owner, and hands them off. It’s often the case that an accountant or family member may transfer paper-based ledgers and accounting to an online representation of the data for better service and features.
a. The small business owner may create the shell of the company and delegate access to it for a period of time to their contractor for the term of the project to transfer records.
b. The contractor may enter into a longer term of service in which they manage accounts on behalf of the small business owner.
c. The contractor may create and administrate access to the small business and may need to transfer online administrative rights to the actual business owner after a period of time.
3. Common business scenarios require delegation and separation of permissions.
a. Small businesses spread over several stores will need to delegate authorizations to manage scheduling and operating details to store managers. Employees at one location shouldn’t be scheduled by managers at other locations for hours at other locations.
b. Access to banking (i.e., access to company bank accounts), authorizing expenses and purchase orders, and clearing payments on purchases will need to be separated permissions in some cases, but merged in the case of sole proprietorships.
4. Situations where extra care is needed in handling data and transaction integrity (i.e., non-idempotent actions, transactions that may be hard to reverse):
a. Credit card processing, online banking, or retrieving sensitive information that might be used to prepare taxes or apply for loans and financial aid
b. Establishing and changing payroll bank accounts
c. Funds transfer (personal and business banking)
d. Making changes to permissions (e.g., administrator role assignment and removal)
I'll attempt to map some of these points to the WRAP and UMA workflows, and point out where the needs must be addressed at the level of policies enforced by the AM/AS.
thanks!
-tom
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Eve Maler
BTW, folks, I just published a blog post about UMA's journey towards simplicity. Check it out here:
http://www.xmlgrrl.com/blog/2010/03/18/uma-learns-how-to-simplify-simplify/
Eve
Eve Maler
e...@xmlgrrl.com
http://www.xmlgrrl.com/blog