This chapter determines the requirements for roles by examining collaboration in a group. Roles are fundamental tools to support collaboration activities. It considers "collaboration" as a generalized concept. The chapter denotes collaboration in the following categories: among people, that is, natural collaboration; among people through systems, that is, computer‐supported cooperative work (CSCW); among people and systems, that is, human‐computer interaction (HCI); among systems, that is, distributed and collaborative systems. Roles can be made to facilitate an organizational structure, provide orderly system behavior, and consolidate system security for both human and non‐human entities that collaborate and coordinate their activities with or within systems. Because the roles have inherent advantages to facilitate collaboration, a role‐based collaboration (RBC) methodology was proposed. The E‐CARGO model is an abstract structure based on roles for a group of people and agents involved in collaboration or team work.