Managing enterprise complexity: the use of Identity Management Architecture to control enterprise resources

There have been a number of articles in the literature that discuss the creation of an architecture for identity management. However these have generally been technical implementations of secure authentication processes rather than the description of an architectural design with one notable exception. This thesis explores the level of understanding of identity management architecture along with its place in the literature and its use in industry. It also defines the major terms used in identity management. The research is based on a case study of eight Australian public sector agencies that had designed identity management systems. The case study allowed the essential elements of identity management systems to be identified. The identification of these elements enabled the development of a new Identity Management Architecture (IdMA). This IdMA was designed as a series of frameworks that will integrate identity management into the existing policies, processes, workflows, technologies and data of an enterprise. Each framework combines one or more of these identity management elements with the relevant enterprise processes and workflows into an integrated set of processes and workflows.