StrategyBlocks Feature Focus – User Abilities

StrategyBlocks User Roles

Our approach to user management has always been to keep it simple! From an administration point of view, this meant not having to manage multiple tiers of users, each with a different purpose and a different cost. So, in StrategyBlocks, there are only three different User Roles you need to consider:

• Administrator – has complete access to all aspects of the model, setup, configuration, company settings, and can see all content restricted using Security Groups. The Administrator(s) assign the Author and User roles. These users can view, create, and modify any object in the system. Except for some that are kept private by the object owner (specifically dashboards, ideas, bookmarks, and exports).
• Author – a general user, with the ability to receive and give ownership of primary objects (blocks, metrics, or risks) to view, create, and make updates. Authors can have visibility into objects guarded by Security Groups only if they are members of that group(s).
• User – is restricted to ‘view only’ model access. Users can also be added to Security Groups to give them extended visibility of the strategic plan. NB: the user role can also be defined by an IP address range to enable seamless guest access.

StrategyBlocks User Abilities

However, based on valuable feedback from our clients, there was a need to have greater flexibility with what actions users had at their disposal. The StrategyBlocks 6, June release will address this need with advanced user ability configuration. The Users management page from Company Settings is available to all users to provide visibility into the user community. Selecting a User will open their individual profile page; this screen will describe all the objects the user owns and manages and those that have been made public or kept private. It also shows their system access status (active or inactive), and their User Role.

When the Abilities button is clicked, a series of four expandable accordion menus are displayed. An Author may only see the abilities that the user has, but an Administrator can open each to award the selected user with 15 additional abilities. They can be:

• Blocks – create, update, manage and delete any blocks in the tree
• Metrics – create, update actuals as an owner, manage details and delete from the scorecard
• Risks – create, update status as an owner, manage details and delete from the register
• Milestones – create, update and delete.

Blocks Reassign

Blocks Reassign will be extended. Currently, a single user can be awarded ownership of all the objects owned by another user, including dashboards, bookmarks, and library archives. In the latest release, you may choose to assign ownership of a user’s objects (blocks, metrics, risks, bookmarks, dashboards, and archives) separately to different users.

Messaging

The Broadcast message will be upgraded. Administrators and Authors have always been able to send a broadcast message to all, some, one, or various categories of users.  An additional Message button will be added to the user’s profile to quickly send a message straight to that user.

Delegated Accountability

This release will give model Administrators the option to configure user profiles in such a way that blocks, metric and risk owners can bring in collaborators when required. Or create departmental super users that can step in and help others when required.

Enhancement Requests

Thanks again to those customers that have contributed their great ideas to extend and improve StrategyBlocks, it is always greatly appreciated. If you would like a walk-through of the new features when they go live, please let us know, we are always keen to help.