Defining Access Control for IBM SaaS Management

As the Senior Lead UX Designer on IBM's Multi-Cloud SaaS Platform (MCSP) team, I led the redesign of the platform's Identity and Access Management (IAM) system. MCSP enables IBM customers to oversee their SaaS subscriptions, offering tools for access management, usage tracking, and cost monitoring. Our objective was to streamline account management by reducing administrative workload and redefining access levels tailored to distinct user roles.

Examples of my implemented designs for managing user access across an account

User Access Home (Copy)

Managing a user group (Copy)

Managing access for a product instance (Copy)

Creating an API Key (Copy)

My Role

Strategic Collaboration: Partnered with product management and development teams to identify design priorities and requirements.
Design Execution: Developed conceptual designs and delivered final assets to visual design and development teams.
Cross-Functional Leadership: Led collaborative efforts to ensure designs met customer needs.
Access Redefinition: Redefined role-based access and permissions for platform users.

**Assessment for defining access for each key role**

Key Challenges Overcome

Defining role access

Challenge: Determining appropriate access levels for various user roles across the platform.
Solution: Conducted a thorough evaluation of each page and UI element to decide:
- Page accessibility for each role.
- Content visibility and interaction permissions.
- Permissible actions for users.
Process: Collaborated with domain experts to refine access definitions, shared progress regularly, addressed issues promptly, and finalized updates to build consensus.

Mapping the platform

Challenge: Understanding the platform from the perspective of each user role to identify inefficiencies and overlaps.
Solution: Navigated the platform as different user roles (account, subscription, and instance administrators and viewers), capturing screenshots and notes for every UI element and action.
Outcome: Eliminated overlapping permissions, provided clear role definitions, and removed inefficient navigation paths, incorporating new, prioritized UIs from the development roadmap.

**Final updated role based access matrix for platform**

Deliverables

Figma Documentation: Created a comprehensive Figma map detailing UIs with role-specific annotations.
Access Summary: Built a simplified view summarizing access levels for key pages and actions.This approach ensured clarity and seamless adoption a cross stakeholders.

Impact

These deliverables served as critical tools for:

Internal Alignment: Clarifying role expectations across teams.
Communication: Sharing the strategy with broader SaaS development teams.
Documentation: Assisting content teams in visually explaining role management.

This approach ensured clarity and facilitated seamless adoption across stakeholders.