Your SharePoint Records Governance Plan and ISO 15489: The Objectives

By Mimi Dionne (@cawprhyd) Jun 16, 2011

Last time, I introduced the SharePoint 2010 Records Governance Plan to you. Today we continue the plan with the objectives section — answering the question, “what are we trying to accomplish through our SharePoint 2010 implementation?”

Objectives

If your organization has MOSS 2007 in production, and it uses site collections for records storage, you’ll need to think first about migration issues — your organization isn’t transferring the same information from MOSS 2007 to SharePoint 2010, is it? What are the criteria for deleting or migrating?

Records and Information Technology will need a map. You, the Records department, have the perfect tool. Armed with updated citations, your records series include an information workflow (a.k.a. the line of custody) amongst departments. You know if creation date or last modified date will be a trigger for retention. This is the perfect moment to highlight usefulness of the records retention schedule.

Manage Metadata

Speaking of creation date and last modified date, we know what these are: Managed Metadata, one of the more well-known services in SharePoint 2010. Yes, it takes R&D time with departments to focus on the difference between taxonomies, folksonomies and ontologies (you can include the newly codified terms, “findability” and “putability” in your governance plan if you want to, but I feel a bit silly using them) but Managed Metadata permits enterprise-wide structures to be applied across site collections. This means metadata can be interpreted at the 50,000 foot corporate view or within each department or team function. Keywords can even be used for tagging social media tools and expertise levels!

Also, the service includes content type syndication. A new content type called “hub site collection” leverages site collections in an organization-wide structure. Therefore, if the common keywords are there, beyond the initial set up time and regular monitoring for success, Records and Information Technology have a way to control information organization tools. Spend the necessary time with IT to determine the content of your organization’s Term Store, where metadata is held — this will be extremely valuable to your organization in the future. REMEMBER TO DIAGRAM! It’s all just a few clicks from publishing through Central Administration.

Managed Metadata is the opening salvo to explain the difference between records management and e-discovery to your General Counsel, if they don’t have a firm grasp on the difference (not all of them are on board yet, you know, with the “new” federal rules of civil procedure). They care very much about the threat of legal action against the organization though — even if the organization has avoided The Big One so far.

Hint: Spend some time reviewing geographic boundaries of the United States Court of Appeals and the United States Districts Courts. Look over judges’ opinions. Would your company have to prepare for a “Meet and Confer” in the Southern District of New York, for example? That could be bad for you, if the company is unprepared for the rigorous demands of production. Be firm with your General Counsel, but be sure to request their feedback on this paragraph.

Managed Metadata contributes to de-duplication. That will make your CIO, your CTO, your CSO and the newly created CCO (Chief Compliance Officer) very happy. The less to manage, the better off you are. Long live digital shredding! Discuss the positives and the methodology here.