Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Identity management (IdM) is emerging as an essential task for IT departments in medium-to-large organizations. IdM technologies, which manage users and their access to critical IT resources, can improve organizational efficiency and have the potential to protect users' privacy and organizations from litigation by ensuring data security. However, while technical solutions for cryptography, access control, accountability, and other security technologies have received a great deal of attention, to date little is known about the human and organizational factors influencing IdM technologies and processes. Our project aims to fill this gap. Specifically, the project has the following two overarching goals: (1) to further the understanding of the human, organizational, and technological factors influencing the effectiveness of IdM tools and processes within the context of organizations where they are employed, and (2) based on this understanding, to investigate improvements to the IdM tools and technologies in order to better support those organizations who employ them and the IT professionals who operate and manage them. The research is divided into three main phases. First, we will study IdM technologies and processes in the context of their actual usage, obtaining realistic data by employing a multi-method approach that comprises heuristic evaluations, surveys, semi-structured interviews, contextual inquiry, and demonstrations with various IdM users. Second, we will use this data to analyze the usability of IdM tools and processes, focusing on the impact of human, technological, and organizational ""forces"" on IdM usage. Third, we will develop guidelines for IdM tools based on our prior analysis. This focus and depth of analysis on IdM will enable us to obtain results from a perspective that was not possible for our prior HOT Admin project. Our research will take a critical step towards enabling timely and secure data access management for Canadian organizations and provide guidance to developers of IdM technologies. Overall, the investigation will develop a solid knowledge base and train highly qualified personnel to evolve the state of IdM in today's organizations.