Identity Management

Objective of Meeting

The objective of the Identity Management sessions, which were part of a combined Security and Identity Management agenda, was to progress the work of The Open Group Identity Management Work Area - a joint work area of the Directory Interoperability, Messaging, and Security Forums. The topics addressed were:

• Review of Identity Management Work Area Activities
• Identity Management Architecture Guide
• Common Core Identifiers
• Identity Management Design Patterns
• Identity Management Framework

Summary

Review of Identity Management Work Area Activities

The projects being undertaken by the work area are:

• An Identity Management Implementation Catalog that will enable identity management products to be compared on a like-for-like basis through information supplied by the vendors in accordance with a standard template
• An Identity Management Architecture Guide that will give enterprise architects engaged in identity management projects an understanding of the topic and practical advice
• Work to understand the requirements for and then ensure standards are in place for Common Core Identifiers
• Input to the definition by ISO of an International Standard Identity Management Framework

The meeting reviewed progress on each of these projects against the Work Area roadmap.

Identity Management Architecture Guide

The meeting discussed and approved in principle some input on use-cases and a draft identity management reference model.

Common Core Identifiers

This is a joint activity with the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) and the Network Applications Consortium (NAC). The meeting reviewed initial requirements input that will be used to develop a business scenario.

Identity Management Design Patterns

A workshop session looked at what design patterns are and how the concept might be applied to identity management. It reached the conclusion that identity management design patterns will be a valuable adjunct to the Architecture Guide, but should be pursued separately. A project to develop a set of identity management design patterns was added to the roadmap.

Identity Management Framework

The work area is liaising with the US National standards body INCITS which is one of the bodies proposing the development of a framework standard by ISO. The meeting discussed the further development of this work and possible liaison with additional bodies.

Outputs

See above.

Next Steps

Work will proceed on the roadmap activities. By the next Open Group conference in July the work area expects to have:

• Started collection of product information for the Implementation Catalog
• Completed collection of material for the Architecture Guide (although editing and arrangement of the material will still be required before publication)
• Completed the requirements statement for Common Core Identifiers, and started work on a framework and an identifier specification
• Identified a set of candidate design patterns for development

Links

None.