A user is a unique Contour login.  Each has their own license type assignment, groups, and permissions.

The license type is configured by the Administrator and controls the type of access a user has to Contour.

Named User – A Named User license means that your login has an explicit license tied to it that will allow you to login to Contour at any time, regardless of how many users are already logged in.

Floating User – A Floating User license does not associate a specific license with your login name, but rather will pull from a “license pool” and apply that license to your name at the time of login.  However, with each active Floating User login, the available licenses in the “license pool” will be decreased.  This means once all the available Floating User logins have been consumed by active logins, no other Floating Users will be able to login to the system until someone logs out and makes a license available for use.

Reviewer – A user with a Reviewer license will not have access to the Contour core product. These users will have the opportunity to be involved in reviews in the Review Center Module but can not initiate reviews.

Collaborator / Read Only – The Collaborator is functionally similar to the floating license except it only allows users to have read only privileges. Read only users are designed for stakeholders, customers and other people within your Organization that need visibility into a Project but don’t need editing rights.  Read only users can view Items, provide comments, and can assign and execute test runs in a test plan. Collaborators may also log defects within the test execution tab.

Note: The "Reserved" collaborator checkbox removes the license from the pool, this will ensure that this user can always connect.

The groups are an easy way for Administrators to assign permissions.  It is much more efficient to grant a group of analysts "read only" access to the development tasks within five different Projects than to setup that access individually.  However, the Administrator does have the means to grant rights at an individual user level as well should the need arise.

Note:  Each person regardless of license type will have a unique login (username and password).  Administrators configure license types on the Users tab within the Administrator Settings.