Role Modeling

Pregatit de: Cristina Gheorghiu

Adina Suciu
Daniel Mihai

Data: 04.05.2015

Agenda

1.

What is Role Modeling?

2.

Role Modeling Steps

3.

Personas and Extreme Characters

1. What is Role Modeling?

Creating role models gives you the opportunity to describe system
functionalities from the perspective of various users, rather than a single one
Modeling roles means:
identifying the individual users who interact with our system, each one having
different experiences, backgrounds and goals
grouping the individual users into user roles

User role: a collection of defining attributes that characterize a population of

users and their intended interactions with the system
Rather than assigning individual permissions to each user, permissions are
assigned to roles and roles are assigned to users.

2. Role modeling steps

Steps to identify and select a useful set of user roles:
1. Brainstorm an initial set of user roles:
.Stick to identifying roles that represent a single user
.Identify system roles: non-human roles
.Business roles vs. application roles
Who

Business role

Application role

Mario

Human Resources Partner

Job poster

Savannah

Administration Department

Job poster

Delaney

Human Resources Manager

Job poster

Mario

Human Resources Partner

Resume reader

Delaney

Human Resources Manager

Resume reader

Scott

College Grad

Job seeker

Anna

Unemployed

Job seeker

Delaney

Human Resources Manager

Recruiter

Lisa

Manager

Recruiter

2. Role modeling steps

2. Organize the initial set of user roles

2. Role modeling steps

3. Consolidate the user roles:
Consolidating the roles that
are equivalent
Ripping up the user roles that are
unimportant to the success of the
system
Specializing user roles

2. Role modeling steps

4. Refine the user roles - defining role attributes for each user role, in
order to better see the differences between roles:

The frequency with which the user will use the software.
The users level of expertise with the domain.
The users general level of proficiency with computers and software.
The users level of proficiency with the software being developed.
The users general goal for using the software. Some users are after
convenience, others favor a rich experience, and so on.

3. Personas and extreme characters

A persona is an imaginary representation of a user role, an example of
the kind of person who would interact with the system
Personas are created using real names, personalities, motivations, and
often even a photo
A persona should be described sufficiently that everyone on the team
feels like they know the persona.

3. Personas and extreme characters

The technique of using extreme characters consists of creating users
with exaggerated personalities when designing a system
It is very possible that considering extreme characters will lead you to
functionalities you would be likely to miss otherwise.
Examples of extreme characters: a pregnant lady searching for a part-time
job, a drug-addict who just got out of rehab