User Roles and Permissions

Overview

This article explains how to access user accounts, define user roles, and assign leads within Planning & Self-Study (PSS).

Access User Accounts

To manage Planning & Self-Study user accounts for an institution, the account needs access to the System Administration module. Only users with the System Administrator role can view this module.

1. Select System Administration from the Navigator app switcher in the top right corner.

   

2. From the System Administration tool, navigate to the People tab. This tab displays a list of all user accounts at the institution. From this page, administrators can create new users and manage existing user information.

   

Create and Edit Users

1. To create a new user, click the Add Person button.
2. To edit a user's account, including the assigned role, click on the unique Person ID hyperlink.

For more extensive information about generating user accounts, review the Creating a New Person User Guide.

User Role Definitions and Permissions

System Administrator Role

Users with the System Administrator role manage an institution's Planning & Self-Study technical infrastructure.

Permissions:

• Create and update data for the institutional hierarchy, user accounts, terms, courses, and course sections.
• Troubleshoot failed data imports and configure Application Programming Interface (API) imports.

Important Notes:

• An affiliated organization does not impact a user's System Administrator access level.
• System Administrators can grant themselves Administrator permissions to access assessment and planning content.
• System Administrators can switch user roles to view software interfaces from other perspectives.
• Only Watermark employees can assign the System Administrator role. During implementation, the Project Manager creates an account with this role for the institution. If other users require this permission, submit a request through the Watermark Support Ticket Form.
• If the individual responsible for technical infrastructure changes, contact the Watermark Support team to transfer this permission.
• An institution can request multiple System Administrators, but keeping the total number to a minimum (such as one to three individuals) helps manage system changes effectively.

Administrator Role

Users with the Administrator role manage assessment and planning content within Planning & Self-Study. Administrators hold both system-wide and local privileges within their Affiliated Organization.

System-Wide Permissions:

• Create and manage Assessment Plans.
• Create and manage accreditation Self-Study reports.
• Create and manage Program Reviews (this functionality requires top-level institutional access).
• Create and manage Strategic Plans (only if the Affiliated Organization matches the primary Institution).
• Define the institution’s Academic Years.
• Customize Configuration Settings related to system vocabulary and structural choices.

Local Permissions:

• View and manage the Hierarchy within an Affiliated Organization, including assigning users as Leads to nested organizations.
• View and edit data for Organizations nested within their Affiliated Organization, including:
  • Mission Statements
  • Outcomes
  • Curriculum Maps (restricted to Program-type Organizations)
  • Cyclical Assessment Plans (including Measures, Findings, and Actions)
  • Program Reviews (Leads will view and edit data for their specific organization, though they lack the full Program Review configuration widget)
  • Alignment to Strategic Plan Goals
• Generate reports on Assessment Plan data across all segments within the defined Affiliated Organization.

Accessing Administrator Tools: When an Administrator logs in, an administrative navigation bar appears on the left side of the screen listing all active system-wide permissions.

System Administrators can assign the Administrator role and link users with the appropriate Organization to define local level permissions.

Contributor Role

A user with the Contributor role enters assessment and planning data for one or more assigned Organizations.

Important Note: Assigning the Contributor role is the foundational step. Administrators must also assign these users as a Lead to grant explicit data entry access. Without a Lead designation, the user encounters an empty dashboard state indicating no work is currently assigned.

A System Administrator can assign the Contributor role and connect users with their respective Organization, typically handled at the Department level.

No Role

System Administrators can remove all active roles from a user profile through the People tab.

Recommendation:

• If an account holds historical assessment data entries, the database may prohibit full record deletion. Removing all assigned user roles effectively revokes platform login access while safely preserving institutional historical records. Use this configuration instead of profile deletion when staff members leave the institution.

Assigning Leads

Assigning a user as a Lead designates that individual as responsible for coordinating and inputting assessment and planning data for a targeted Organization.

Lead Definition and Permissions

A Lead can view and edit the following content areas for their assigned Organization:

• Mission Statements
• Outcomes
• Curriculum Maps (restricted to Program-type Organizations)
• Cyclical Assessment Plans (Measures, Findings, and Actions)
• Program Reviews
• Alignment to Strategic Plan Goals

Important Notes:

• Users holding the Contributor role require a Lead assignment to at least one Organization to gain data entry access.
• Users with the Administrator role do not require a Lead assignment to modify organizational content. However, setting an Administrator as a Lead officially marks them as the primary owner of that specific data set.
• A single Organization supports up to 20 assigned Leads. Conversely, one user can serve as a Lead for multiple distinct Organizations.

How to Assign Leads

An Administrator can assign users as Leads using the administrative dashboard interface.

1. Click the Organization Management tab located in the left-hand administrative navigation bar.
2. The interface displays all Organizations available under the current administrator's credentials.
3. To assign a user, click the Assign Leads link positioned to the right of the respective Organization name. If the system already has active leads, click on an existing name to modify the list.

For detailed step-by-step instructions, view the Assigning Leads Walkthrough Guide.

Lead User Interface: When an active Lead logs into the platform, a My Leadership category displays on the homepage. This section highlights all associated Organizations alongside active data entry links.

Important Note on Hierarchy: Setting a Lead at a high-level Organization tier does not pass operational access down to lower nested structures. For example, assigning a user as a Lead for a Department does not open data entry permissions for the Programs nested inside it. The user requires explicit Lead assignments on each sub-program tier.

Dean’s View

The Dean’s View configuration permits users to execute reports on assessment plans for all internal nested structures under a parent Organization where they serve as a Lead, without giving them full document-editing access.

Example: A user configured as a Lead for a College can extract report data from all underlying Departments and Programs belonging to that College, saving administrators from adding that user as an individual Lead across every department.

To enable Dean's View:

1. The user profile requires the Contributor role definition.
2. An administrator must assign the user as a Lead to a structural parent Organization tier containing nested sub-units (such as a Division, College, or complex Department).

Recommendation: Use the Dean's View configuration for users who only require institutional reporting access instead of granting them a full Administrator role. This reporting access layer protects live setups by blocking unauthorized editing capabilities, mitigating systemic errors.

Accessing Reports:

When a user tracking under Dean's View accesses the platform:

1. The assigned entity shows under the My Leadership zone on the landing page.

2. To extract reports across the composite organization structure, select the active Assessment Plan link.

   

3. On the resulting screen, click the Insights tab located in the top horizontal utility menu to view compiled plan matrices for all sub-units.