Workbench Access Use Case

Last updated May 27, 2011. Created by stevector on May 27, 2011.
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This is a port of the README file within the Workbench Module. It may need to be adapted to fit the Handbook style.

The above description is abstract, so let's look at a practical use-case.

Imagine that you work for a large university. The university is divided as follows:

• The University
  • Colleges
    • College of Arts and Sciences
      • Art
      • Biology
      • Physics
    • School of Medicine
      • Dentistry
      • Medicine
      • Nursing
  • Staff
    • Administration
    • Faculty
    • Support Staff
  • Students
    • Prospective Students
    • Current Students
    • Alumni

In such a system, people who are part of the Biology department have no authority inside the Nursing group. The two groups are separate parts of the hierarchy. The chair of the Biology department, therefore, cannot set policy for the Nursing school.

Biology and Art, however, are both sub-groups of the College of Arts and Sciences. While the chair of Biology cannot set policy for the Art department, the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences can set policy for both departments.

For websites, this concept of authority often affects who can create and edit content within different areas of a large site. Workbench Access provides a flexible tool for defining and managing these rules.