WorkProductDescriptor
Work Product (Artifact): User Role
This artifact captures the types of users who will use the system under development.
Purpose
To help the team and stakeholders identify who will use the system as part of capturing valuable user stories.
Relationships
RolesResponsible: Modified By:
Main Description

A user role represents users of the system under development who have similar attributes. These are some of the common attributes that differentiate user roles from each other:

  • Frequency of using the software
  • Proficiency with using computers and similar systems
  • Domain knowledge
  • Reasons for using the system or problems that they want to solve

Identifying user roles helps the team and stakeholders gain insight on who will use the system, what their objectives are, what problems they have that the system will be solving, and so on.

Properties
Optional
Planned
Tailoring
Representation Options

For informal projects, or when there is not a large number of user roles and personas involved, or when there is no need to capture a separate list of user roles and personas for communication purposes, use index cards to capture the name and description of each user role, as well as each persona and its description. User role names are also captured on each user story card as part of the user story statement "As a [user role] ...."

For larger, more complex projects where there is a large number of user roles or personas, or where there is a need to communicate the user roles and personas descriptions, synonyms, and so on outside of the team, consider capturing user roles and personas in a separate text document, spreadsheet, or database, including as many attributes as appropriate to capture all information that you need for your project.

More Information
Guidelines