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I have come into the habit of hand-sketching various diagrams for software I create. My software is mostly for the web. I use E-R diagramming for the data logic (model of MVC) , and a personally invented diagram style for the interactions -- what pages lead to which other ones and what do they do, i.e. the views & controllers of MVC. This allows me to simplify the important concepts, eliminate the inconsistencies and highlights problem areas that need further investigation.

Now, I've been starting to look at an application that requires a fairly complicated system of permissions. Not really "big" -- just complicated -- with several permission "dimensions" where some permissions need to be created on the fly, and some be static.

I find myself wishing there was some simple way to diagram the permissions system, so that I can get the ideas out of my head in a clear form, and make sure there are no inconsistencies. Hence my question:

Has anybody seen/used any method of modeling permissions in a visual diagram?

A: 

The 'ls' command uses color to denote permissions.

Also I would think on a whiteboard or powerpoint, that since permissions link groups of users to files, that lines between the two or spatial grouping becomes a possibility.

Paul
Thanks for the input, Paul. To be more precise, I'm not really after modelling file-system permissions. I'm more after a graphical method of describing permissions in a multi-user web system (like Stack overflow, for example). And as for the diagramming methodology, I was looking for some sort of standard, like "square boxes mean ..., circles mean ..., lines with arrows mean .." that sort of thing.Nevertheless, appreciate your input!
Zach