April 23, 2024

INFO 4230 Section 001 – Records Management Operations (Spring 2024 1)

DRM Environment Description
Assignment Instructions

You need to select a department/organization for whom you will assess and develop an overview plan for an electronic document management system and for a records management system. You will use this department organization for this assignment and for the remaining 2 project assignments.

It is important you consider this carefully as you cannot change your environment for the DMS report assignment or for the RMS report assignment.

About the Needs Assessment: You will describe the environment/department and conduct a modified needs assessment (NA) that provides an overview of what users would like a DMS and RMS to do as part of their work. Generally, a needs assessment describes the state of a current environment/task (including the workflow), what users like and don’t like, and what works and what doesn’t. The NA culminates in a list of needs for the environment in order to improve function, along with proposed solutions. We will complete the needs list and solutions as separate assignments.

Be sure to review the “What is a Needs Assessment Download What is a Needs Assessment” lecture before you begin this assignment.

You may need to do some basic research to adequately describe your selected environment and how the current system of document and records management works. Making reasonable assumptions is perfectly fine. I am focused on how well you understand the principles and components of EDRM.

Decide Upon Your Environment

Select an organization or a department within an organization which will be the focus of your work and application of EDRM principles. You can use your current workplace or you might select an organization/department where you would like to work in the future. In the report, you will explain what the department does/role in the company.

NOTE: It’s OK if your environment currently uses all – or mostly all – paper documents. The focus of this assignment and the other 2 reports is on how to create an EDRM for your selected environment. Alternatively, if your environment does use electronic DRM, this project would be looking at the user feedback and problems/potential issues with the current system that need to be addressed.

Conduct Your Modified Needs Assessment

Then, you will describe how the company/department currently performs work related to EDRM.

Describe “What Is”

This is part of your Current System section in your report (report format is detailed below). Write an overview of how the current document and records management systems work – including the general workflow. Workflow is about task management and how repeatable, less complex individual processes get accomplished. It is the specific manner in which a task is accomplished.

Again, remember that a system does not have to refer to technology. Your company may still be using paper and file cabinets with limited technology to manage your documents and records.

User Needs

In a real-world situation, this is where you gather data to determine what is not working correctly as well as discovering features that users would like to see in the system. You can gather this information in a number of ways, as described in the What is a Needs Assessment lecture. For example, you might interview users and stake holders. You also could use a survey methods. This also is where you would do research to determine how to fulfill those needs.

While it is easier to base this assignment on a company or department with which you are familiar. It is not necessary. So, while you could conduct interviews and do research, you also can think of an organization and department and use logic to discuss document and records management.

Before you begin the following sections, introduce this part of the paper by telling us how you got your information (e.g, interviewed the manager; researched similar companies, did a survey, etc.)

Document Management

For the document management section of your report, you will provide 3 work tasks and include the following for each task:

List the task and describe the document workflow for that task

Note: If your task involves multiple types of documents, you can just select one, and describe it’s role in the task and the workflow for that particular document.

List the document type in terms of format

For example, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF or JPG are all different file types. Essentially, I am talking about file extensions here: .doc, .xls, .pdf, etc.

List the document category (Note that some of these are examples of records and can be used in the records section, instead)

These will be specific to your organization/department but examples include policies, procedures, contracts, permits, licenses, audit forms, user manuals, service manuals, invoices, orders, customer information

You can group related categories; for example, permits and licenses could be one category

Describe where/how things do or could go wrong or that are missing in the CURRENT management process – this is where you would apply information from your gaps analysis, along with your proposed solutions

Describe features that users would like to have in the NEW electronic system – this comes from the interviews of people using the system, your knowledge of the current system, your gap analysis, etc.

RECORDS MANAGEMENT

For the records management section of the report, you will provide examples of 3 record categories/classifications and include the following for each category:

List the record category/type* and how/where it currently is stored (workflow is not required here)

This will be specific to your organization, but examples include legal papers, employment records, contracts, inventories, email, correspondence, medical records, student records, budgets, payroll records

Describe the process for determining when a record is obsolete

Describe the record destruction process
Describe where/how things do or could go wrong or are missing in the CURRENT management process – this is where you would apply information from your gaps analysis, along with your proposed solutions

*Don’t confuse record format (e.g., .png., .jpeg, emails, PDF, .doc, .txt, etc.) with record category/type.
Format for Needs Assessment Report

Your report should be in Times New Roman or Arial, 12-point font. Your report should be about 6 to 8 double-spaced pages in length.

Use these headers to complete your report. As well, use subheadings to format the sections of your report.
Introduction
This is a general statement that explains what the document is and why it has been created. Be sure to include how you gathered the information you provide in the report.
For example:

THIS REPORT PROVIDES AN OVERVIEW OF THE CURRENT DRM SYSTEM AND PROCESSES FOR JONES’ PAINT AND AUTO BODY. [MORE DETAIL ABOUT WHAT THE BUSINESS IS/DOES HERE]. INFORMATION FOR THIS REPORT WAS GATHERED VIA INTERVIEWS WITH THE BODY SHOP OWNER, PAINT SHOP MANAGER, AND BODY SHOP MANAGER.

Current System

This should be a fully developed paragraph or two. It should provide an overview of the current system. Remember that the current system may be manual, electronic, or a combination of both.

Document Management

You do not need any introductory material here, but be sure to include all of the parts listed above under User Needs > Document Management. A framework is shown below in Task 1.

1. Task Name [for example, customer order, book checkout, patient billing, adding an item to inventory, etc.]
Workflow for the task
Document type (format)
Document category
Describe where/how things do or could go wrong or that are missing in the CURRENT management process – this is where you would apply information from your gaps analysis, along with your proposed solutions

2. Task Name …

3. Task Name …

Records Management

Again, you do not need any introductory material here. Be sure to include all of the requirements found under User Needs > Records Management

1. Record Category/Type [for example, email] and how/where it currently is stored

Describe the process for determining when a record is obsolete

Describe the record destruction process

Describe where/how things do or could go wrong or are missing in the CURRENT management process – this is where you would apply information from your gaps analysis, along with your proposed solutions

2. Etc.

Conclusion

This should be a brief concluding remark or two that summarizes your findings.

References

Include references as applicable. This reference list is a bit different from an APA list. I want you to include any researched sources you use, but I also want you to include whether you conducted interviews, surveys, etc. I realize most of you will be creating your project based upon researched data as opposed to your own work environment.

Submit Your Report

Submit your report as a Word document in the related assignment tool.

Grading Rubric
Current System
Identifies the department/organization. Describes “what is” for the current method of managing documents and records. Explains how the organizational information was gathered.
Document Management
Provides detail and explanation for all required points for THREE separate tasks: Task & its workflow (what happens)
Doc type
Category
Problem/potential problems
System features that would help/be useful

Records Management

Provides detail and explanation for all required points for THREE separate records classifications/categories. Record type & where/how it’s currently stored
How is record determined to be obsolete?
How is record destroyed?
Problem/potential problems
System features that would help/be useful

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