Reference Service Model Framework for Identity Management

Each person on the Internet typically has several digital accounts, which are associated with different identity information. During the last years, various identity and access management (I & AM) approaches were established to help manage all these digital identities and operate online services within an organization and beyond. This development has led to heterogeneity, making it hard to differentiate between, comply with, and combine these approaches. In this article, we propose a novel reference service model framework for different I & AM flavors designed with the open enterprise modeling language ArchiMate. The proposed identity management service model framework (IMSMF) consists, on the one hand, of a meta-model and several models for various protocols and implementations, and, on the other hand, models, which were designed in a generic service-oriented way. These models lead to a universal model to indicate additional components for an enhanced I & AM. IMSMF has been evaluated through several rounds of expert interviews. IMSMF helps to establish, enhance, and change I & AM systems while also being a base for profound further research.