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Documenting your Step A research

This section identifies the importance of documenting your research, and suggests different forms of documentation you may wish to compile.

Document what you have researched

During the course of your Step A analysis it is useful to compile:

  • a list of all sources used, citing the name of the source and where it can be accessed
  • copies of each documentary source or a set of notes which summarises the key information you derived from the source, and
  • a set of notes for each interview or other consultative forum.

Information Tip: Document your work
You may cite pre-existing reports or personal knowledge as sources where you consider that these are sufficient, but you should provide adequate information to enable every source to be identified and to retrace your steps and decisions where necessary.

Compiling documentation about your Step A research will enable you to:

  • have a record of your research which you will refer to throughout your project
  • facilitate future retrieval of the sources you have used. This is particularly important if you are undertaking major projects, such as the development of a disposal authority, where you may need to check and cross check your work
  • have data to feed into any reporting you are required to do for management, staff or external organisations, and
  • use as an information resource to share with other people and projects in your organisation.

Documentation tools

This manual contains some tools that can help you to document your organisational assessment. These include:

Please note that none of the tools or forms provided in this manual are mandatory in NSW. You may therefore choose not to use the forms provided in the manual and adopt a less structured approach, or one that fits better with your normal business practices. You can also customise the forms provided so that they better meet your business needs.

Documentation for disposal purposes

If you are doing DIRKS to develop disposal coverage for your organisation, you will need to provide State Records staff with a range of background information to help them to understand the context of your organisation and the types of records you are seeking disposal coverage for.

See Appendix 1 of State Records' Procedures for Disposal Authorisation for an overview of the types of information you should gather in your Step A assessments to support your disposal authority.

Compile a report

When you have finished Step A you may want to compile a report that includes:

  • a summary of the issues you have identified in the course of your Step A research
  • a statement on how these issues affect your intended project, and
  • a project plan to guide you through the subsequent steps of the methodology that are relevant to your work.

The report could also be used as a reporting mechanism to keep management informed of your progress and findings.

Develop a business case

If you do not have financial support and management commitment to continue with your DIRKS project beyond the Step A analysis, or if your scoping has revealed that the project needs more time and resources than originally envisaged, you may want to compile a business case as a means to summarise the significance of what you want to achieve and to lobby for additional resources.

Business cases are documents or presentations that identify and justify an intended course of action. In the DIRKS methodology, the objective of a business case is to:

  • secure commitment to and funding for your DIRKS project
  • drive change management in your organisation
  • secure broad commitment to and understanding of your project, and
  • provide a means by which you can measure your project's progress and viability.
No. Suggested components of a business case
1 A discussion of why you need to undertake this project, highlighting the internal or external drivers that are requiring the changes you propose to make.Drivers could include:
  • business needs, directions or priorities
  • current corporate goals, or
  • recent investigation or accountability crises.
In your business case, try to tie your project to other significant initiatives in the organisation, or to current ‘hot topics’ or issues of concern within your environment.For example, if management is very concerned with information access, privacy management or knowledge sharing, you could list these as a driver and a section of the business case could address how the project will contribute to these broader objectives.Adequate corporate governance is also a significant organisational issue, and so your business case could demonstrate how your proposed solution will facilitate this objective.
2 A summary of your current situation.Depending on the project you are proposing, this could include an indication of the current costs associated with the way you currently do business. This could calculate:
  • 'lost time' spent doing tasks that could be avoided with a new recordkeeping system
  • specific costs, such as storage costs, that will be removed by the implementation of a new system.
This section could also identify:
  • inefficiencies or draw backs to your current practices, and
  • the risks faced by your organisation if it continues with current systems and practices.
Note that if you have done any risk assessments to date, draw on this specific knowledge and cite examples from your research and analysis. See Making your DIRKS project feasible for more guidance on risk assessment.
3 A definition of your proposed solution to the issues you have identified, including the:
  • infrastructure requirements
  • staffing resources
  • technical needs
  • costs, and
  • timetable
involved in developing and implementing the solution. Be sure to highlight the existing sources or infrastructure you can use for your project.If you have undertaken a feasibility assessment as part of your project development process, be sure to cite your research and conclusions. See Making your DIRKS project feasible for more guidance on undertaking feasibility assessments.
4 A benefits analysis which:
  • identifies what the organisation will receive as a result of this project and
  • clarifies exactly how the proposed solution will bring these benefits to the organisation.
As a part of your benefits analysis you may want to identify some of the 'quick wins' the project will generate, to demonstrate some of the immediate benefits you hope to achieve.

A sample business case for an improved records management program is included in the 'Tools' section of the manual for guidance.

InformationTip: Quantify as much as you can
Although it can be hard to determine specific costs to demonstrate the benefits of improved records management, it is worth calculating as many specific costs as you can and including these in your business case.

For example, one organisation wanted to develop a retention and disposal authority for its records. Some of the records to be covered by the authority were stored in secondary storage. To help demonstrate the range of benefits that would come from developing the disposal authority, the organisation calculated what had been spent on this storage over the past five years, and projected costs for the next five years. They were able to demonstrate that the project they were proposing would pay for itself within three years, based on storage costs alone.

Business cases as promotional tools

If you do not need to develop a business case to gain additional resources for your project, you may still develop one to use as a communication device and promotional tool.

Your DIRKS analyses will require that you communicate to a number of staff across your organisation. It can be hard to get staff to focus on records management issues as they often do not see the relevance of recordkeeping work to their daily business lives. If you specifically outline the benefits and objectives of your project in a short document, it could prove a useful and persuasive tool for obtaining staff cooperation. It will also keep all staff informed of what you hope to achieve.

Information Tip: Do not duplicate effort
If you already developed a business case for your DIRKS project before commencing on Step A, you don't have to develop a new business case once your Step A research is complete. You may however want to update or slightly alter your proposal, to accommodate any new priorities your Step A research has identified.

Further guidance

More information about the development of business cases can be found in an Office of Information Technology publication, Business Case Development Guideline, available via the 'Guidelines' section of Office of Information Technology website.