An Application of Role-Based Access Control in an Organizational Software Process Knowledge Base

This is a NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY CA report procured by the Pentagon and made available for public release. It has been reproduced in the best form available to the Pentagon. It is not spiral-bound, but rather assembled with Velobinding in a soft, white linen cover. The Storming Media report number is A825693. The abstract provided by the Pentagon follows: The Organizational Software Process Knowledge Base (OSPKB) is the repository of an organization's software process, product performance, quality metrics, and lessons learned. The knowledge is maintained on a project-by- project basis, as well as by business domain. The OSPKB contains sensitive data and information that needs to be protected from unauthorized disclosure or modification. In this thesis, we address the challenge of controlling access to the data and information stored in the OSPKB. In particular, we investigate approaches to applying role-based access control (RBAC) to OSPKB applications.