Reporting the Access Review Process (Dashboard)

Access review processes are one of the most important components for strengthening the security of Identity and Access Management (IAM) systems. During the annual permission and role review process, employees’ access rights and roles are evaluated by their managers. Beyond the regular approval mechanisms, this process provides an additional layer of control to further tighten security.

In this process, managers review each employee’s permissions through the platform provided by the IAM system, making decisions such as “keep permission A for this employee,” “keep role B,” or “remove role C.” This evaluation is carried out in detail for every single employee.

One of the most important points in the access and role review process is that managers avoid making bulk selections. When bulk selections are allowed, managers can sometimes complete the process without actually checking the permissions, simply assuming everything is correct. Yet the core purpose of this process is to review each permission individually and tighten security by minimizing vulnerabilities.

As an IAM team, reporting these processes with various metrics is extremely valuable, both to make the process easier to understand and to showcase the value of the work we do. This kind of reporting makes everyone’s contribution to the process more visible, while also making the process’s impact on security more apparent.

The sample metrics report (dashboard) I built can serve as a guide for reporting your own processes, and can help you better communicate the importance of this process within your company.

If you’d like to view it as a live HTML dashboard, click here.

If you’d like to download it as a PDF, click here.