Record
3.2 Document TypesArchives exist because there’s somethings that can’t necessarily be articulated. Something is said in the gaps between all the information
What is a work document?
Definition
A documented account or representation of past activities, events, transactions, decisions, or observations
Purpose
To preserve time specific information for historical, legal, regulatory, or informational purposes
Records are snapshots of information at a specific point or period in time where the integrity of the information is preserved, and often archived. In this context the integrity refers to the information staying consistent over time and not changing.
A lot of different type of information can become records and it is up to organisation to decide what information has value as a record. Typical reasons to create records and archive information can be:
- For legal purposes
- For audit purposes
- To enable insights through data
- To identify trends
- Analyse incidents and problems
- Review previous decisions
The type of record can vary from publicly required records such as financial statement to strictly confidential records such as management team protocols. Therefore each individual record must be managed accordingly.
Accountability, Responsibility & Lifespan
The accountability for records lies in the Leadership layer. More specifically with the manager assigned responsibility for the related area. The accountability includes the overall responsibility for the correctness, integrity and availability of the record.
Records are a way for managers to enable learning from the past, predict the future, justifying actions and back-trace decisions.
Responsibility
The responsibility for work documents lies within the Operations layer and the individuals performing the activity of creating records.
Records are a way for all employees to enable learning from the past, predict the future, justifying actions and back-trace decisions.
A Record is a document that has a very long lifespan. Most importantly, it does not change once created. The integrity of a record is an important aspect as it serves as a historical representation. It is common for governments to require that some records are kept in a specific format for up to 10 years, such as financial statements, contracts, etc.
Good practice is to never update records, but instead adding correcting records if needed. It is also good practice to ensure that records are stored in a way that ensures their integrity and traceability of all actions.
Typical Content
Since the format and purpose of records can vary so much there is not typical content structure. Each record must be created for its unique context and purpose.
However there are a few pieces of information that should be considered to accompany every record:
- Date(s) or period of time
- Responsible for record
- Exclusions or other information concerning the record content
- Measures ensuring the integrity of the record (to protect against manipulation)
Records are and important part for the organisation to operate as it is often required by law or other stakeholders as well as providing opportunity for insights and data driven behaviours and decisions.
Next Step
Now that you have the knowledge of the Asset Structure and the document types, it is time to learn how to combine this into an Asset Architecture…