RIM: A Liberal Arts Model.

AT THE CORE

THIS ARTICLE EXAMINES:

* the four "liberal arts" of a successful records and information management (RIM) program

* how technology developments are forcing RIM professionals to redefine their fundamental role in the organization

* how a liberal-arts approach to learning can position RIM managers to play a strategic role within their organizations

Aristotle and his Peripatetic school are credited with inventing the liberal-arts approach to education. While the liberal-arts curriculum does not prepare students for particular careers or professions, it espouses an understanding at a higher and broader level that enables one to understand the foundations of more specific fields. Instruction in the liberal arts still includes composition, public speaking, math, music, history, literature, and other areas that -- in the liberal-arts framework - all educated persons should have in common. In an age of extreme specialization, there is still a need for enlightened generalists, those knowledgeable in the four records and information management (RIM) "liberal arts": RIM, business process design, law, and information technology (IT). Today, no one can know everything about all these areas, but everyone can understand the nature and value of their roles in information management.

Whether noticed or not, the RIM paradigm continues to change rapidly. Awash in unpredictable technology developments, the RIM profession must redefine its own fundamental role in the organization. Change is constant, but what is now significant is the speed at which technology is proliferating and driving organizational change. RIM professionals are continually confronted with new strategies, such as Web enabling, data mining, knowledge management, and business intelligence. They are bombarded with acronyms like RDMS, EDMS, ODBC, HTML, and WAP from those who would remake the business environment in their image. It is important to get above this Tower of Babel and find a new direction; offered here is an approach and some conceptual tools to facilitate this metamorphosis.

Finding that new direction first requires finding out and understanding where the profession has been. This search begins with basic business process design, a function that is no longer viewed as separate from systems design. Essentially, the two have become indistinguishable. They are increasingly surrendered, however, to systems groups rather than being retained as a departmental responsibility, a program management responsibility, an enterprise responsibility, or a legal responsibility -- all this despite the fact that all these business elements are key stakeholders in the process. This is a classic case of subtle usurpation of line authority by staff specialists. It leads, among other things, to a reduction in coordination among functions. Why does this occur?

It happens largely because a tear in the organizational fabric has developed. Business elements have become more highly specialized and more technically oriented within themselves. Focus is increasingly inward. Knowledge gaps, communications gaps, and technical gaps appear among these increasingly disparate business functions. When implementing business systems, deference regarding design is increasingly given over to IT people. This is wise only to the extent that it makes good business sense. Carried to extremes, however, this deference becomes problematic. Consider this: Despite in-house IT expertise and the growth of a massive external IT consulting and the value-added reselling (VAR) industry, as few as 20 percent of major technical installations are considered to be completely successful. A startling number (often cited as high as 40 percent) are considered so unsuccessful that they are terminated. In the face of such a failure rate, with all of this IT expertise available, how can this be?

The answer may be alarmingly simple. It is not the technical input that is lacking. Rather, the problem is that all the stakeholders in the process have not been adequately identified and accommodated in the design and implementation of the project. The case studies are myriad; many are reported in the trade journals. The problem goes directly to the communication gaps previously mentioned and represents a significant tear in the fabric of the organization. Recognizing and acknowledging this problem is fundamentally significant. Doing so offers the basis for a new direction and almost unlimited opportunity for RIM professionals. It has the potential to move them from the tail end of the process to the very center of organizational planning and development. It offers opportunities to change how they are perceived and valued. Too often, RIM is viewed as a static overhead cost. However, the professional now has an opportunity to be recognized as an essential, value-added element of the management paradigm.

Being familiar with the operations of all units in the organization, RIM practitioners are in the most logical position to facilitate communications and cooperation among the stakeholders, to mend the tear in the organizational fabric as they maintain ongoing contact with all of them. They are part of, for example, the only information-management discipline that has a solution to uncontrolled records growth, litigation risk avoidance, compliance with law and regulation, and permanent or long-term preservation of archival material. This was and is their domain; they must reclaim it. How can they do it?

They do it by becoming true internal consultants who facilitate communication and improve understanding between all of the stakeholders. As information professionals, they must promote a vision that involves all stakeholders working together in a team-based approach to systems design and implementation. Further, they must convince the organization to embrace this view, to understand that technology drives fundamental management issues of strategy and vision that extend far beyond the IT purview and levels of competency. Once this critical vision is established, the organization will be in a much better position to develop successful strategies for integration of multiple needs and viewpoints.

One of the ways to accomplish this organizational transformation is to acquire the basic organizational knowledge required to build a solid RIM environment. That involves four fundamental areas, or "arts," in which every RIM professional must become conversant. They can be characterized as the four foundations of a successful RIM program: RIM, program management, information technology, and legal. Each represents a major stakeholder, each a significant partner with RIM professionals, and process design or technical implementation projects must always include input from all four of these if there is to be reasonable hope of success. In examining each of these areas, the conceptual tools needed to advance the RIM professional's role as an authentic, value-added participant in organizational planning will be identified.

Fundamental I: RIM

Organizations must first recognize that foundational, underlying RIM principles remain constant, regardless of the medium in which the information is managed. Indeed, it can be argued that in the disorderly world of automation, such solid, durable RIM principles become even more critical, for as technology enhances the ability to manage information, it also enhances the ability to mismanage information.

The primary RIM elements, such as the basic definitions of records and records management, the values of records, and the information life cycle, need no elaboration here. What is important is that the larger Organization understands them and understands that information is an asset and that information management is asset management. Two important logical consequences derive from this recognition. First, as a participant in asset management, the RIM professional now has a greater claim to a value-added managerial function in the organization. Second, it demonstrates the need to become a more integral, ongoing part of the internal control processes team by aligning thinking and services to the central business of the organization -- rather than remaining on the periphery handling the byproducts of these processes. These are both vital steps in what has been called "breaking through the cardboard ceiling."

Fundamental II: Program Management

Program management as a liberal art relates to the basic business processes themselves, whatever they may be. To facilitate business process redesign or to facilitate the implementation of technology, management must possess an accurate and complete understanding of the current business process and the true costs associated with it. This is the baseline for definition of new business requirements and objectives. Management must also have a firm understanding of any internal policies, governing laws, and external requirements regarding business processes and their output. Without this thorough knowledge of current processes, it is not possible to make an informed decision regarding proposed changes. A bit of reflection suggests that without this knowledge, the organization simply and literally doesn't know what it is doing.

Even as internal consultants, RIM professionals cannot be expected to have in-depth knowledge of each business process within the organization. What he or she must possess, however, is a liberal arts understanding of the analytical tools required to establish the baseline. That must be the first step of any consulting project. The tools required to do this are not complicated; most have been available for a long time. Some examples are

* Flow Charts. An obvious tool that gives a good graphical representation of flow through a business process. It should be noted that flow charts can track many things, such as processes, material, people, or communications.

* Pareto Charts. These are bar charts that allow identification and prioritization of the problem areas to be dealt with. They utilize the 80/20 principle; that is, 80 percent of a problem generally is caused by only 20 percent of the process.

* Cause and Effect or Ishikawa Charts. Often called fishbone charts because they resemble the skeleton of a fish, they are designed to identify all of those factors that can have an effect on the process under analysis.

* Task Analysis. A well-established "three dimensional" charting technique that shows who does what and where in the organization or process. It is also a very good tool for identification of duplication of effort.

These are very powerful analytical tools, especially when used in combination. They are included in many total quality management training programs and are fundamental to the methodologies of the consulting industry.

Here it is revealed how technology drives management issues of strategy and vision. In anticipating new technology, the business manager must identify not just current customer needs but what they will be in the future as well. Management must anticipate long-term business needs in looking at new technology costs and weighing those costs against alternative costs. Do they commit heavily to technology? Are there problems with economy of scale? What kind of technology should they implement? Should it be active technology, which actually controls business processes, or should it be passive technology, which tracks and reports capability? Do they simply hire more people? The question becomes that of what they want the business to look like in five or 10 years. It involves strategic planning, and to the extent that information management is asset management, the RIM consultant must be a party to the management dialogue. And finally, management must understand that those who are one step away from the actual "manufacturing" process are all records managers; that is, all use technology to manage information. Their customers may be internal or they may be external, but they all are doing essentially the same thing.

Fundamental III: Information Technology

Most records managers are not systems designers or programmers per se, yet many are called upon to manage -- if sometimes apprehensively -- development and operation of imaging and electronic document management systems. This expectation raises a fundamental issue with the profession: In-depth systems management is not a valid expectation for RIM professionals, at least in the liberal-arts model that is proposed here. They still must be able, however, to communicate effectively with the IT staff, and beyond that they must be able to do so in their own vernacular. Only then can they provide the guidance and input required when new systems are implemented. There are three perspectives that are useful in getting a handle on document and information management technology: evolution, type, and terminology.

Evolution Perspective

It is convenient to divide the evolution of IT into three basic generations. The first generation of business systems evolved from paper-based processes. They were centralized, mainframe, database systems. Access was limited. (Some will remember submitting stacks of punch cards to a centralized data center to be run at their convenience and to be picked up at a later time.) Documents, usually summary data reports printed out onto green-bar paper, resembled traditional paper documents in format and could be filed as such. No automated workflow or work management was involved yet; tracking documents and records in such systems was relatively easy. Business processes remained essentially sequential and linear in their structure. The job of a responsible document and records manager remained, if somewhat more complicated than paper records in file folders, at least feasible. Because of limited intrusion on the actual business processes, the limited access, and the close resemblance to the paper-driven processes, people were comfortable with these systems.

Second-generation systems brought radical change. They were PC-based, with a host PC running applications or a dedicated server connected to "dumb" terminals. Access became more universal. Files became less structured and were often maintained on the PC, which was now being described as "personal." These systems for the first time allowed technical intrusion into the actual management of business processes. This change took two forms: passive and active. Passive systems involved software that allowed tracking of systems and the generation of reports. Initial systems required manual input to the tracking systems, to be followed eventually by automated tracking technology such as bar coding. Active systems allowed for actual document management, or active management of business processes that were themselves sufficiently automated. It was this capability that led to the business process redesign industry.

Also significant factors at this stage were the development of more complicated document naming conventions and the graphic user interface (GUI). New products, such as PC Docs and Saros' Mezzanine, allowed movement away from the old "eight-dot-three" restrictions to much more complicated naming conventions that, in turn, allowed complex directories, libraries, and search protocols. The GUI interface allowed the use of icons to manipulate the software, documents, or processes, thus opening up the real-time use of the system to relatively untrained employees. As a result, very powerful process management software could be coupled with very versatile and powerful directories and libraries for total automation of the business environment in a technical environment that was no longer restricted to just a few specialists. Everybody became a player.

This stage of development began to produce some real headaches for the traditional records manager. It was necessary not only to consider the database or library-based assets as records, but also to document, for legal reasons, how they were managing libraries and processes in the technical environment. To meet this need, in part, they had to create data about data -- metadata.

Third-generation systems have become essentially wide-open -- architecturally and operationally. Applications can now run at the desktop level, on mid-level servers, or on back-end servers. Systems are now almost completely open in their ability to share, modify, and transit records, documents, and data. There are few restrictions imposed by the nature of the technology itself. Any restrictions must now be business-imposed. Doing this in Web-based business environments presents overwhelming challenges to the RIM professional. It becomes almost ludicrous to speak of "document control" or "copy control" in such an environment. These systems are in a constant state of flux, and, from the standpoint of the RIM professional, they are out of control. (Some courts would agree.) If an organization is going to enter this business environment, it is absolutely essential that it do so in a logical, well-planned, well-organized, and well-documented manner that identifies and controls the information assets that are vital to its operation and history.

Type Perspective

This perspective is a very good conceptual tool. It identifies the types of systems; that is, how they are defined in terms of what they do and how they do it. At a deeper level, there are five convenient ways to do this; they are listed as follows with some examples. The value of this knowledge to RIM professionals goes to their fundamental ability to understand how technology relates to a given business process. For the liberally educated RIM professional, it is vital conceptual knowledge.

Identification by structure

* mainframe

* PC -- stand-alone

* PC -- networked

* dedicated server networked * Internet

* intranet

Identification by storage media

* floppy disk

* magnetic tape -- open reel or cartridge

* magnetic disk

* high-density magnetic diskette 

* optical laser disk -- write once, read many (WORM)

* magneto-optical

* CD -- WORM and rewritable 

* ion collision drives (Norsam)

Identification by function

* data management

* text management

* image management (dedicated cache and library management)

* engineering / CAD / specialty graphics systems

* OCR/ICR

* barcode

Identification by application

* administrative process management (e.g., insurance claims, transportation)

* financial process management (e.g., banking, savings and loans)

* production process management (active and passive)

* engineering/creative process management

* other specialty (e.g., law enforcement, judiciary, medicine)

Identification by operational characteristics

* linear processing; heads-down repetition

* parallel processing; simultaneous distribution

* totally ad hoc distribution and processing

Terminology Perspective

In the age of the PC, IT affects everyone in the workplace. In order to communicate with others about it, everyone needs at least a working knowledge of the vocabulary. A third conceptual approach, then, to understanding IT is simple: One must learn the terminology, a lingua franca for collaboration with IT staff. Fortunately, this is not hard to do, and one will learn a great deal about IT in the process. It will help to understand the structure and function of systems, what kinds of software run where, telecommunications, and metadata management. It will help demystify the technology and permit more knowledgeable communication with IT staff. Remember, however, the goal is not to gain in-depth knowledge of the technology or to become IT specialists, but to attain an accurate, broad, up-to-date, conceptual understanding that facilitates effective communications and an understanding of the issues of managing information in the IT environment. And finally, it will allow one to understand and create a bridge to the important issues of technical, operational, and legal standards. For example, how does the implementation of ISO 9000 affect the traditional retention schedules and their application to the technical environment? Or, what is the impact of DoD 5015.2 and its constraints on IT applications in the information environment?

Fundamental IV: Legal

All too often, organizations see the legal issues of records management as the purview of corporate attorneys alone. This is unfortunate as it ignores the role of the records manager in litigation and places wholly unreasonable demands on the attorneys. These difficulties are compounded by the introduction of technology. To a large extent, the strength of a court case lies in the effectiveness, efficiency, and integrity of the RIM program on which the case may depend and the degree to which the organization is prepared to deal with the discovery process in the automated environment. Preparing for the discovery process is not the attorney's responsibility but that of RIM professionals. They must have the necessary litigation support ready long before a case goes to court.

A strong argument can be made for creating legal discovery teams just as is done for disaster preparedness or business interruption events. In doing so, a better working relationship with the legal staff is created and business managers are educated about the legal discovery process. Just as RIM professionals are not programmers, they are not attorneys. Instead, what they do in creating litigation support systems will be done with the advice and consent -- and possibly the gratitude -- of the legal staff.

RIM professionals need knowledge of some well-established legal fundamentals that involve legal imperatives, guidelines, and procedures. Within these are found such categories of legal knowledge as statutes, regulations, executive orders, judicial orders, case law, court rules, and discovery. Some of the basic RIM issues that have been well decided in case law involve such questions as the following:

* What is a business record?

* What forms of records will be admitted?

* What media will be accepted?

* What record management policies may be accepted?

* Who is the owner of the record?

Consider for a moment how such questions apply to current RIM systems and about how they will be even more challenging in a Web-based business environment.

Statutes and Directives

There is a large body of statutes governing records and information management, including the very definition of records. Federal laws are codified in the Code of Federal Regulations. State statutes will vary somewhat in their codification and structure, but in the area of RIM, they tend to follow the federal statutes. RIM professionals, then, must be conversant with statutes such as the Federal Records Act and the Uniform Copies Act.

Regulatory agencies can and do promulgate huge bodies of regulations that carry the weight of law. The RIM staff must always be aware on a continuing basis of the legal environment in which it conducts its business and share that understanding with other stakeholders.

Legal Findings

The skillful use of case law to support a legal position is a fundamental part of civil litigation; for the civil litigation attorney, it is probably the greatest challenge. There are some key cases that are important to the RIM profession, and one should be aware of them. Almost all of them have to do with definitions and with the acceptability of copies or automated records, and a great deal of legal precedent has been established in these areas. The compendium of important case law regarding records management is well identified and available within the RIM community. Much writing and training is done on it, and none of that need be repeated here. But there are some things to be remembered about it that add to the RIM professional's conceptual and liberal arts tool kit.

Case law can be viewed as decisions that have passed through the prism of appellate review. It is a process of continual testing, interpretation, and refinement. Often it is a test of legislation itself. And it is not uniform from one judicial jurisdiction to the next. Some additional factors regarding case law are that it

* sets precedent for lower courts

* provides guidance on how other appellate courts may rule

* provides insight on how courts will rule in similar situations when cases are "squared on all four corners"

* interprets the meaning of statutes, regulations, and other case law

* supports court rules

The limitations of case law include the following:

* It is not binding on courts in other jurisdictions.

* Inconsistency is possible.

* Conclusions are limited to the facts in the specific case.

* Conclusions may vary from court to court, even if the cases are on "all fours" on the issues.

* Conclusions may vary based on the temperament of the appellate judge.

Appellate procedures are not done before a jury. Rather, they are informed legal decisions made by a judge and based on fact and law.

Judicial Notice

A critical current issue for all stakeholders on the business process team is the establishment of standards surrounding electronic signatures. New standards and statutes are being written in this area, and it will take a succession of case law, new court rules, and judicial notice to finally define the legal perimeters for this new technology. Judicial notice here deserves mention. "Judicial notice" means, in effect, judicial acceptance. It means that a particular judicial authority has accepted the reliability of a given technology and that its integrity and reliability need not be re-established each time it comes before a court in that particular jurisdiction. Judicial notice usually involves a formal process that may vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

Legal Discovery

Discovery is a process that requires an organization to provide, at the direction of the court, all case-related information the opposition requests. It must be provided in an organized, usable fashion within the time frame specified by the court. Failure to comply can result in court sanctions, such as fines, or in instances where non-compliance is held to be intentional, incarceration. In rare cases, default judgments are made, and the case can be lost without ever getting to the actual issues.

Court Rules

An important distinction between civil and legal discovery is that in the latter the rules are very strict about the relevance of the evidence to be requested, whereas in civil discovery, Federal Court Rule 26 provides for broad allowances in requesting evidence. It need not be shown that the evidence requested bears direct relevance; it need only be shown that it could lead to evidence that may be relevant. The court may impose such heavy legal costs that the opposition will want to settle in lieu of heavy discovery costs. It is not wholly uncommon for thousands of cubic feet of paper records to be involved in discovery.

A New Paradigm 

If RIM, program management, IT, and legal issues are the four cornerstones of organizational knowledge, then in the role of facilitator, the RIM professional must be familiar with two keystones: finance and internal control. The RIM professional must be familiar with the cost and budget models that the organization uses and with soft-dollar analysis, which is often a significant part of systems justification.

Even for organizations that accept informational assets as real assets, placing and managing hard-dollar values on them is difficult. It poses particular problems for internal control (e.g., accounting, auditing). However, if RIM professionals accept the organization's information, records, and documents as assets, RIM is automatically a party to the internal control process. And internal control should always be a part of the dialogue in planning new programs and implementing new systems.

At the Lyceum in Athens, Aristotle was the first to define and classify the various branches of knowledge. He further held that to be well educated, an individual should be conversant in all branches of knowledge, though not a master of each. It is this liberal-arts approach that allows one to speak the language of all the participants, to create a solid new role for the RIM generalist, and to be that individual in the organization who is familiar with all critical areas and in the best position to facilitate communication.

To follow this approach toward a new RIM paradigm means developing the types of conceptual tools discussed earlier. It also means developing a team approach to RIM development. In doing this, RIM's role in the organization will be better recognized and respected. It will have become a value-added element of the modern management paradigm. This will have been accomplished in two ways. At the technical level, RIM professionals will be instrumental in restructuring information-management systems to leverage RIM, IT, business process, and legal resources. At the strategic level, they will play an important role in long-range planning at the highest management levels.

This approach may seem simplistic, but it raises fundamental questions about the future of the RIM field. Is it the only solution? Is it the best approach? Time will tell, but this model provides the tools and vision needed to increase RIM's value to the organization in a real way, to ensure a role for RIM professionals in developing migration strategies and managing information in the electronic business environment.

Editor's Note: Similar problems with IT project failures on a more international level were noted in "Records, Computers, and Resources: A Difficult Equation for Sub-Saharan Africa" in the January issue of The Information Management Journal.

Charles G. Chase is a management and records analyst for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri. He has 14 years experience in the information management field and specializes in electronic imaging and litigation training. Chase serves as a member of the Tennessee State Supreme Court's commission on technology. He received a BA in English from the University of Iowa and is a certified TQM trainer. He may be reached at [e-mail].