User Management Best Practices

Follow these best practices to streamline user management and permission assignment for Embedded Partners.

Implementing the right strategy allows you to maintain a scalable and seamless user experience while efficiently managing access control. Proper user management is essential for keeping operations smooth and ensuring the right people have access to the right data at the right time.

Define and prioritize key user requirements

Identify the specific user management and permission requirements that align with your team and business’ technical capabilities and security needs. This process ensures that you select the most effective method based on the operational priorities of your team. Choose between the following approaches:

• API: This approach is recommended when you need real-time updates and have the technical expertise to manage APIs.
• Security file: This approach is recommended if ease of implementation and simplicity are more important than real-time updates.

The following table summarizes and compares the approaches:

Criteria	API	Security File
Applicability	Applies to more technically proficient teams	Applies to less technically adept operations teams
Implementation effort	Higher effort due to technical barriers	Less effort to implement
Real-time updates	Updates are registered instantly	Data refreshes (typically daily)
Technical requirements	Requires API knowledge and integration	Requires email as a data attribute
Flexibility	More flexible with instant updates	Less flexible with delayed updates
Ease of use for operations team	Requires technical involvement	Easier for less technical teams
Research and Development (R&D) involvement	Requires R&D for future updates	Minimal
Support for failures and deviations	Potentially higher complexity in support	More stable with regular data refreshes

Discuss the user management approach early in the implementation, after initial data discoveries and onboarding. This is part of the scope definition process as it will determine what work needs to be done during the initial implementation and ongoing maintenance. By clearly defining and prioritizing your needs, you can avoid unnecessary complexity and ensure a scalable solution.

Optimize the user creation process based on technical capacity

Select a method for user creation that matches your technical proficiency. For teams with technical expertise, API-driven user management offers flexibility and real-time updates, albeit with a higher setup effort. For less technical teams, auto-provisioning with a security file allows user creation through automated processes that don’t require deep technical skills.

• API: This method provides instant updates and is highly flexible but requires API integration and technical know-how, making it more suitable for advanced teams.
• Security file: Users are automatically created when user data is received. This method is simple to implement and requires minimal technical resources but depends on data refresh cycles.

Evaluate the need for real-time updates

Ensure your user management strategy accounts for real-time operations and expected updates. APIs enable instant permission assignment, making it ideal for environments where users frequently change roles or where updates are mission-critical. While, security file-based systems depend on data refreshes, making them less ideal for time-sensitive scenarios but easier for day-to-day operations.

• API: Changes are applied instantly, ensuring real-time management of users and permissions. This makes the API approach preferable in fast-paced environments where immediate updates are necessary.
• Security file: Updates are applied during scheduled data refreshes, typically once a day. While this approach minimizes complexity, it can introduce delays in reflecting new users or permissions.

Incorporate flexibility based on workflow needs

Consider the flexibility and ongoing maintenance requirements of each approach. Security file solutions offer a more stable process with fewer technical hurdles, while APIs provide the flexibility to make on-the-fly updates but require greater maintenance and R&D involvement.

• API: Greater flexibility for creating, updating, and managing users, but require ongoing R&D support and technical expertise.
• Security file: Ideal for teams that need a stable, low-maintenance solution for managing users, but updates are limited to data refresh intervals.

Collaborate closely with your Operations and R&D teams

Work closely with your Operations and R&D teams to ensure the user management strategy aligns with your long-term goals. Engage in discussions to assess how each approach will impact future updates and ongoing management, particularly if technical resources are limited. Regular collaboration can help you identify potential pitfalls and ensure that your chosen method is sustainable in the long run.

• API: Requires more technical input from R&D, especially for creating custom workflows for user management and ensuring seamless integration with your system.
• Security file: Easier for Operations teams to manage with minimal R&D involvement, but future updates and changes will depend on data refreshes.

Ensure long-term sustainability

Evaluate the long-term sustainability of the user management approach. If real-time updates are critical, an API-based approach will offer the flexibility needed for dynamic environments, though it comes with higher resource demands. If stability and ease of use are more important, the security file approach will provide a simpler, more reliable path, but with limited flexibility.

Choosing the right user management strategy affects the overall efficiency of the system. For partners that do not use APIs, updates can be delayed, as they depend on daily data refreshes to register changes. For those needing immediate changes to user roles and permissions, APIs allow for faster updates but require technical investment. By selecting the approach that best matches your team's capabilities and requirements, you can optimize both implementation and ongoing user management.

For more information about the APIs, see Users API and Permissions API.