Vital to both the public and private sector, where transparency has become the order of the day, good record-keeping supports efficiency and accountability by creating, managing and retaining meaningful, accurate, reliable, accessible and durable evidence of activities and decisions.
In recent years, the spread of electronic systems has exacerbated the drift towards ad hoc or sub-standard record-keeping with the adoption of word processing, e-mail and multimedia applications leading to essential evidence of company decisions and transactions being stored on individual hard drives in various file formats.
But while technology has contributed to the problem, it also offers an integral part of the solution. It offers the means to design and deploy a system that ensures full and accurate records are retained and remain accessible for as long as they are required.
The technology must, however, be based on a sound set of principles that underpin good, basic record-keeping practices. DIRKS is a set of guidelines published by the National Archives of Australia; the methodology is an eight-step process designed to assist organisations to improve records and information management. It is based on and expands the best practices approach outlined in Australian Standard AS 4390-1996, Records Management; and the International Standard ISO 15489, Records Management and its accompanying guidelines.
The eight DIRKS steps are:
* Preliminary investigation;
* Business activity analysis;
* Record-keeping requirements identification;
* Existing systems assessment;
* Record-keeping strategies identification;
* Record-keeping system design;
* Record-keeping system implementation; and
* Post-implementation review.
There are a number of benefits to be had from deploying such a process. One such as DIRKS helps organisations understand the business, regulatory and social context they operate in, and establishes a case for reviewing their record-keeping practices.
DIRKS is a set of guidelines published by the National Archives of Australia; the methodology is an eight-step process designed to assist organisations to improve records and information management.
Paul Mullon, marketing director, Metrofile
Their record-keeping requirements are analysed and they assess the extent to which existing organisational strategies satisfy these requirements. Existing strategies can be redesigned to address unmet or poorly satisfied requirements.
Based on DIRKS, this allows businesses to:
* Conduct business in an orderly, efficient and accountable manner;
* Deliver services in a consistent and equitable manner;
* Support and document policy formation and managerial decision-making;
* Provide consistency, continuity and productivity in management and administration;
* Facilitate effective performance throughout the organisation;
* Provide continuity during and after disasters;
* Meet legislative and regulatory requirements including archival, audit and oversight activities;
* Provide protection and support in legal proceedings, including managing risks associated with evidence of organisational activity;
* Protect organisational interests and employee, client and present and future stakeholder rights;
* Support and document current and future research and development activities, developments and achievements, as well as historical research, provide evidence of business, personal and cultural activity;
* Establish business personal and cultural identity; and
* Maintain corporate, personal or collective memory.
Essentially, DIRKS maintains that a good record-keeping system must ensure that records remain authentic, reliable, complete, unaltered and usable, and the systems that support them must protect their integrity over time. It also states that systems must also be capable of performing various fundamental processes:
* Capture;
* Register;
* Classify and index;
* Access and secure;
* Appraise;
* Store;
* Use and track; and
* Dispose.
These generate metadata that plays an essential role in accountable records management. Of course, many existing business systems already perform some of these functions and can quite happily be integrated into the overall methodology. All that is essential is that their record-keeping role be identified and properly administered, even though they may not be accessible to all in the business.
As with any project, there are certain processes that must be adhered to when deploying DIRKS. Most important, though, are management support and proper project management, leading to a healthy overall records management programme.
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