Suppose you are a business analyst tasked with designing an electronic records management system. Your mission is to define business and stakeholder requirements and to find ways to bring together the policies, terminology, processes, technologies and users that are unique to your company into a sustainable system for life-cycle records control.

This workshop explores how the long-established discipline of business analysis can help organizations design and implement "rules and tools" for effective recordkeeping systems.

In 2002, the International Standard for Records and Information Management (ISO 15489) introduced a methodology for the development of business classification schemes and retention schedules. This methodology, known as DIRKS (Designing and Implementing Recordkeeping Systems) evolved out of the Australian standard for records management AS4390 (1996).

DIRKS is a strategic approach to the management of business information that is based on traditional system design methodologies. These methodologies have been adapted for the records management environment and offer a step-by-step analysis of organizational facets - structure, environment, stakeholders, processes, inputs and outputs.

Through a series of interactive exercises and case studies, this workshop will explore the DIRKS methodology and its key output - the Business Classification Scheme (BCS). Classification schemes serve as the principal interface between humans (record creators, receivers and users) and the recordkeeping systems used to capture and retrieve records. When done right, the BCS is easy for users to follow since it describes concepts and relationships with which they are already familiar in their daily work.

Relationships between components that support automation and reduce user effort will be demonstrated. Participants will learn how to identify additional classification facets to support search-and-discovery capabilities and improve business performance and to learn to establish a framework to identify and link essential recordkeeping elements within an integrated structure. These elements include the following: