The principles assessment as a collaborative tool.

• Author: Gable, Julie
• Position: THE PRINCIPLES: GENERALLY ACCEPTED RECORDKEEPING PRINCIPLES

John Isaza, Esq., FAI--a 24-year veteran attorney with a dozen years of records and information management (RIM) experience who works for international law firm Rimon PC--regularly uses the Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles[R] (the Principles) and the Information Governance Maturity Model (Maturity Model) in his work for clients. (See www.arma.org/principles for more information about the Principles.)

The majority of his time, about 65%, is spent doing compliance assessments and audits of existing programs, and the rest is devoted to formulating new RIM and/or information governance programs.

One of Isaza's main tools for accomplishing this work has been ARMA International's automated Principles Assessment tool. His first-hand experience has yielded several insights on how to use this tool most effectively in real-world environments and provides many lessons learned that will be useful for RIM practitioners.

Conducting the Assessment

The Principles Assessment is a computer-based tool that provides an automated way to determine how an entity's information management practices measure up against the Maturity Model.

The tool requires answers to 100 questions related to the eight principles: accountability, transparency, integrity, protection, compliance, availability, retention, and disposition. By selecting the answer that most closely matches the current situation, the Principles Assessment will calculate a score for each principle. The scores correlate to levels ranging from i to 5, with I being substandard and 5 being considered transformational. The Principles Assessment can be used for a single department, a division, or the entire organization.

As with all tools, there are tips and techniques that can enhance the usefulness of the assessment. Isaza's solid consulting experience has yielded several pointers that he generously shares here.

Involve Others

"Don't just do it all yourself," cautions Isaza. In situations where the records manager performs the entire assessment, there is the risk of rating too high or too low on various program aspects, and the outcome will be subjective and, therefore, less credible. Isaza advises that the best way to ensure objectivity is to get responses from others in the organization. How to do this can be challenging, though.

"Don't think that you can just send the tool to everyone in the firm and have them answer questions on their own," advises Isaza. Many questions seem to be redundant from one principle to the next, but they actually have a different context and may need clarification...