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Version: 0.7.0

Actor

Definition​

An actor is a person, role, team, organizational unit, or external organization that receives a service, performs work, or owns a model object.

Boundaries​

An actor describes an acting party, not a software system. One person may perform several roles. A role or team is usually preferred in a stable model because its identity survives staffing changes.

Minimum characteristics​

  • kind: person, role, team, organizational unit, external party;
  • purpose or responsibility area;
  • organizational affiliation when relevant;
  • lifecycle state.

Relationships​

An actor receives a service, uses a channel, participates in a process, and owns any significant object. Owner, operator, and approver can be modeled as specialized responsibility relationships.

Example​

ACT-CUSTOMER is the customer receiving support; ACT-CRM-TEAM is the team owning the CRM system.

Common mistakes​

  • recording an employee name instead of a stable role;
  • treating a system as a business actor without an explicit reason;
  • storing ownership only as free text that cannot be connected to other objects.