Guidelines for Managing Electronic Documents in Australian Government Agencies - Essential groundwork: review of current practices

Copyright © Commonwealth of Australia 1995

1. THE CASE FOR BETTER DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT
2. ESSENTIAL GROUNDWORK: REVIEW OF CURRENT PRACTICES
   1. SCOPE OF THE REVIEW
   2. THE REVIEW TEAM

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Essential groundwork: review of current practices

In most agencies, approved procedures will already exist for managing paper and microfilm, but not necessarily for managing electronic documents. In some agencies, procedures for the management of electronic documents do exist, and may be followed by a majority of users. Even so, it may be beneficial to review current practices, to ensure that records management principles are being applied effectively, and that corporate needs are adequately addressed. Ideally, such a task should be undertaken as a clearly-identified corporate review, preferably with dedicated review staff.

In organisations which do have systems and procedures for managing documents on various media it is important to review them periodically to ensure that they are consistent.

SCOPE OF THE REVIEW

The review should address the following issues:

• the agency's corporate environment: its vision for how it wants to operate, the specific outputs, products and services it wants to provide;
• assessment of which types of documents are personal, group or corporate;
• identification of appropriate access and storage for each type, including privacy and security;
• identification of formats and standards, including incorporation of spreadsheets, databases and images;
• current shortfalls in meeting document management needs;
• current excesses: inefficient, inconvenient or redundant output;
• current opportunities for new or improved document management procedures or systems that would make a significant contribution to meet client needs or corporate objectives;
• quantification and identification of the values of costs able to be saved or of benefits to be gained by redressing shortfalls, excesses and inefficiencies;
• solutions and options for redressing shortfalls, excesses and inefficiencies, with cost breakdowns for each solution or option;
• strategies for the implementation of each option, and cost/benefit impacts of each;
• identification of documents that are records and a review of associated disposal authorities.

THE REVIEW TEAM

The range of skills which should be represented in the review team includes those of records managers, librarians, archivists, and information technologists. This also applies to implementing a document management system, see Managing electronic documents, p. 18.

RECOMMENDED ACTION

• Formally review existing procedures for the management of electronic documents, preferably with dedicated review staff, addressing the range of issues outlined in this section.
• Consider the viability of undertaking an information management review
• Consider your agency's current position in terms of efficient management of electronic documents ; identify key problem areas
• Discuss with appropriate levels of management