A consultant's view: the principles as diagnostic tools.

• Author: Gable, Julie

Alison North is a United Kingdom-based management consultant focused on developing information governance strategies that minimize an organization's risks while aligning with its vision, business strategy, and budget.

A consultant for more than 25 years (see sidebar "Alison North: A Career Overview), North's use of the Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles (the Principles) began in 2011. Prior to that, she had reviewed the Principles and considered that they would be a great tool in her information governance toolkit.

North notes, The Principles and the Information Governance Maturity Model (IGMM) complement my own methods and provide a framework, backed by a professional body. They provide additional credibility to the results I deliver to my clients. I had dabbled with my own maturity model over a number of years, but felt that the ARMA Principles and the IGMM brought a North American flavor to my consultancy. As the majority of my clients are global with offices in the U.S. and Canada, this was an important consideration."

Flexibility Is Key

As noted in their Preamble, the Principles are both general and flexible. (See sidebar "Preamble to the Principles" on page 40). North's work exemplifies how the Principles and the IGMM are broad enough to encompass many kinds of industries and how they can be flexibly adapted to various information governance challenges. But to understand North's use of these tools, it is necessary to understand the scope and nature of her consulting work, much of which is risk- and information-related, but at the business level rather than at the records management level.

"Rarely is my work proactive," says North. "A client doesn't call up and say Td like to mitigate my safety risks by developing an information governance program.' More likely I am asked to review an organization's information governance because a problem has occurred and the company is vulnerable. I react in a proactive manner. By that, I mean I don't take the problem at face value. I look for the root of the problem before I try to solve anything."

North's approach is to start at the top to gain a broad understanding of the business, its vision, its financial status, its reason for being. She seeks to know what drives the organization's governing board to make decisions and must understand the firm's culture, its internal politics, its challenges and future information needs.

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"Websites and annual reports reveal quite a lot and are a good place to start," says North, '"out current and more specific details need to be gathered from within."

Gathering First Impressions

North gathers a great deal of company information before beginning the project, and she evaluates the people, processes, and technology that are involved in finding and providing the requested background information. She uses the Principles and the IGMM to assess this experience as a start in learning how the organization handles its information.

For example, North considers these Principles-related questions:

* Was the requested information readily available? (Availability)

* Was it...