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Ensure records are created and kept when business processes and systems are reengineered

Many organisations are committed to the philosophy of continuous improvement. This involves continually assessing and reassessing not only the outcomes of business processes but also the processes and systems themselves to see what improvements can be made to streamline and improve methods.

The DIRKS methodology is particularly valuable in assessing how recordkeeping can be built into redesigned business processes and for redesigning business systems to ensure they meet all your recordkeeping needs.

Identifying your recordkeeping requirements

Undertaking Steps A-C of the DIRKS methodology can help you to identify the types of recordkeeping requirements your organisation needs to consider when it is reviewing its business processes and systems.

Step A: Preliminary investigation

Step A is an opportunity to look at your organisation broadly to see its goals, how business is performed, who performs it and the reasons why it is performed. In this step risks, stakeholders and other factors that impact on the way business is performed are also examined. Therefore, this step is extremely valuable for business process or system review, as you are able to see the context in which processes and systems operate. This understanding will be refined during subsequent steps.

If you need to only analyse processes or systems for one function or business unit, it is good to start with (or obtain) a broad idea of your organisation's goals and business in Step A so you have a clear idea of your organisation's roles, requirements and operations. If there are blurry lines between business activities or areas, or if the systems or processes you are assessing cross between business areas, you will need to ensure your preliminary investigation covers all relevant areas. However, once you have a handle on the broader issues you can start to concentrate on the area of concern.

QuestionsExample:

One local government authority was undertaking DIRKS analysis to assist in the design and implementation of an appropriate recordkeeping system for the transaction of the council's human resources function. The project team already had a good understanding of the organisation, and disposal coverage for this area but they still conducted some broad research in Step A to look at how the function interacted with other functions. Then they focussed their examination on:

  • legislation that governs the operation of the personnel function in local government
  • privacy management issues
  • a broad identification of how personnel management is conducted across the council, not just in the Human Resources Unit
  • stakeholders who should be consulted about the review, including business unit managers, each of whom has some personnel related responsibilities
  • court cases involving personnel management which the council has previously been involved with.

Step B: Analysis of business activity

Step B is an opportunity to look in much greater detail at the functions, activities, transactions and business processes performed which will provide you with a useful basis for other decisions regarding improving business processes and systems. For example, the examination of business processes in Step B (particularly in the sequential analysis) can contribute to the identification of:

  • existing inefficient or outdated work processes
  • what records are currently created as part of work processes
  • activities the organisation has a mandate to perform but are not carried out in practice and the reasons why they are not
  • ways processes might be streamlined and documented in a standardised way (identified fully in Step E: Identification of strategies for recordkeeping), and
  • risks with recordkeeping implications.

The scope of this analysis depends on the project goals. This information can be further defined in later steps of the DIRKS methodology allowing you to develop better business processes, design templates and standard procedures which integrate recordkeeping with the work tasks.

Step C: Identification of recordkeeping requirements

If you have undertaken process analysis in Step B: Analysis of business activity you will have a breakdown of your current activities and processes and some knowledge of the records captured as part of the performance of these. In Step C you look at what recordkeeping requirements the organisation is subject to - including records you need to keep to meet regulatory requirements, business needs and what the community expects of you. You also look at the risks of not meeting these requirements and devise a list of 'accepted' requirements, which can then be a benchmark for you to assess your business processes and systems against.

Improving business systems and processes

Doing Steps A-C and knowing the types of requirements that affect your business processes and systems is important.

Steps D-G of the DIRKS methodology can help you to apply this knowledge. These steps of the methodology can help you to:

  • determine whether your existing systems enable your recordkeeping requirements to be met
  • employ a range of strategies to ensure your business systems adequately support your recordkeeping requirements
  • undertake system design work where necessary, to help you meet your recordkeeping requirements, and
  • implement revised systems and processes effectively across your organisation.

Step D: Assessment of existing systems

If you are doing DIRKS to improve specific processes in your organisation, you need in Step D to target the system or systems that perform these processes. Remember to think broadly when looking for systems and do not only assess the systems you are aware of. Talk to other people who perform the process you are assessing and ask about the systems they use.

Some staff may have developed personal systems to control aspects of the business process, involving spreadsheets and their own personal procedures. Be sure to include any such systems and the records they create and generate in your assessment. Remember too that the systems performing your business process may not all be located within the one business unit. Make sure you include all business systems in your assessment, irrespective of their location.

If you have worked your way through the methodology and assessed your organisation in Step A: Preliminary investigation and done a detailed assessment of the business and how it should be conducted in Step B: Assessment of existing systems and Step C: Identification of recordkeeping requirements, you will have a good idea of how systems should perform by the time you reach Step D. Use all this knowledge you have gained as a means to assess the effectiveness of the systems that are currently in operation.

InformationTip: Be comprehensive in your system assessment
If you are assessing the way a specific function is transacted or examining all business systems in your organisation, you need to be comprehensive in your assessment and make sure all appropriate business systems are examined.
Systems can be rapidly developed in ad hoc ways. Automated systems and processes can evolve rapidly across your organisation. You therefore need to be vigorous when looking for systems as you may not be aware of all systems currently used to transact and document your business.

Questions to ask

Specific questions about systems that you may want to ask could include:

  • does the system meet the specific business requirements that apply to it?
  • is the system easy to use?
  • do all appropriate staff have access to it?
  • are all relevant business rules applied within it?
  • is the system adequately maintained?
  • do procedures explain how it should be maintained?
  • can the system adequately manage the records it generates?

This range of questions will help you to determine the appropriateness of the systems your organisation currently uses to transact its business.

Assessing all organisational systems

If you are doing a full review of all systems in your organisation, you will need your Step D assessment to be comprehensive, but attainable. To help you achieve this, your Step D analysis can be rolled out gradually across your organisation. If you are doing a full scale DIRKS assessment, you may wish to undertake your system assessments incrementally and gain a thorough understanding of a business system and its strengths and weaknesses before you move onto the next system.

Alternatively, to keep your work manageable, you may want to use the knowledge you have gained in Step B: Analysis of business activity and Step C: Identification of recordkeeping requirements to help you prioritise aspects of your Step D analysis. If you've undertaken an assessment of business in Steps B and C and gained a broad organisational understanding as a result of Step A: Preliminary investigation, you will have all the information you need to undertake a risk assessment of your organisational business operations.

Doing such an assessment will allow you to identify those areas of your business that perform crucial or litigious functions, as well as those areas that are less subject to difficulties or legal investigation. You can then use this risk analysis to prioritise your system assessment.

You will need to ensure that all relevant systems are assessed, in the areas you have chosen to focus on. Talk to action officers and use your knowledge of business process. Use interviews to determine how action officers would like to see business done. Have a very good understanding of the specific recordkeeping requirements that apply to the business areas you are assessing.

See the section above on the assessment of specific business systems for an outline of some of the questions you may choose to ask when you are ready to conduct a specific system assessment.

Step E: Identification of strategies for recordkeeping

Step D: Assessment of existing systems enables you to determine how your organisational systems currently operate and to identify the problems that may result from standard operating procedures. In Step E you will utilise knowledge of existing practices, and the problems associated with these practices, to determine a range of strategies that will enable you to solve these problems.

Step E outlines four strategies - policy, design, standards and implementation. Working through this step will help you to choose the strategy or combination of strategies that will enable you to redress the inappropriate system performance identified in Step D. Once your choice of strategies has been identified, in Step F: Design of a recordkeeping system you will start to design solutions based on the strategies you have chosen, that will enable you to rectify the system flaws you've identified, and allow you to start to meet your recordkeeping requirements.

Step F: Design of a recordkeeping system

If you are undertaking DIRKS to improve business processes and systems, in Step F you will start to implement the recommendations you have been building during the course of your DIRKS analysis. In Step F you will design all components of your system bearing in mind all the lessons you have learned about how to improve your business processes through the incorporation of better recordkeeping.

Step G: Implementation of a recordkeeping system

A project to improve business processes or systems will impact greatly on the day-to-day work of staff members. Its success also relies greatly on staff acceptance of the changes. The change management mechanisms recommended in Introducing DIRKS and the promotional strategies recommended in Step G may contain useful suggestions to assist in your implementation.

If you are only looking at work process changes, you will need to consider how you are going to move from one way of conducting business processes to the new way, and what effect this will have on operations. If you are making changes to systems, conversion strategies are very important to consider.

Reviewing business systems and processes

Step H: Post implementation review

Step H is an opportunity to measure how the implementation of new business processes or system changes has fared and whether they meet expectations outlined in project planning. It also provides the opportunity to take corrective action regarding faults detected in the process or system.

Further information

Business process and system assessment is referenced throughout the DIRKS Manual (particularly in Step B: Analysis of business activity, Step D: Assessment of existing systems, Step E: Identification of strategies for recordkeeping and Step F: Design of a recordkeeping system), so read the manual for more guidance.

Other recommended sources include:

AS 5090, Australian Technical Report: Work Process Analysis. This document is available for purchase from Standards Australia.

Step 1 of A Methodology for Evaluating Existing Information Systems as Recordkeeping Systems from the Indiana University Electronic Records Project at http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=3313