Content and scope of Step A

• Summary of Step A
• Undertaking Step A
• Why should you do Step A?
• Relationship to other steps

Summary of Step A

This part of the methodology is designed to help you to understand:

• how recordkeeping fits within your organisation
• how recordkeeping interrelates with other business areas
• business needs you have to consider in your DIRKS project
• your organisation's recordkeeping strengths and weaknesses
• concerns or barriers to improving recordkeeping
• the legal or other requirements you may need to accommodate, and
• the requirements of stakeholder and other broad interest groups

For your project to be successful, you will need to consider all these different factors and build them into your project planning.

Undertaking Step A

Step A can be quite flexible in its implementation. It can be done as:

• an independent scoping or exploratory exercise to determine the feasibility or boundaries of your proposed project, or
• as the first point in your project to develop a recordkeeping system and/or recordkeeping tools for your organisation.

Tip: Scale your research to your project requirements
The amount of research you undertake in this step will depend on the nature of your project, your level of corporate knowledge and the availability and currency of pre-existing reports on relevant facets of the organisation.
External consultants unfamiliar with your organisation are likely to draw heavily on source material during the analysis phase while you may tend to rely more on your own knowledge.

Why should you do Step A?

It is good idea to complete Step A for any DIRKS project you undertake. It is the information discovery and scoping step of methodology that provides the context that can help you to understand:

• how your project should be structured
• the factors it must consider in order to be successful
• the strategies that will be most effective in your organisation
• the staff, technology and other resources you can draw upon, and
• the business and legal realities and constraints you need to be aware of.

The processes outlined in Step A are particularly important if you are going to develop a business classification scheme and a retention and disposal authority for your organisation. Much of the information you will need for the development of these tools will be identified in the Step A analysis.

You do not need to do Step A if you have a good idea of:

• your organisation's structure and the business activities it performs
• the legislation and other requirements to which your organisation is subject
• your organisation's technical infrastructure and corporate culture, and
• the risks that your organisation's business environment is subject to.

Relationship to other steps

As stated, Step A, Preliminary investigation, is a useful step to undertake as an introductory component of all DIRKS projects.

In addition, you can do much of the research required within other steps as part of your Step A investigations. For example you can:

• gather and assess information to assist with Step B: Analysis of business activity
• pinpoint recordkeeping requirements to assist with Step C: Identification of recordkeeping requirements, and
• identify systems currently used to conduct business in your organisation, to assist with Step D: Assessment of existing systems.

Tip: DIRKS can be tailored to meet your needs
DIRKS can be a very flexible process. It can be tailored to meet the specific needs of your organisation and implemented in ways that suit the business practices and operations of your organisation.