Developing Documentation Standards for Business Activity:  
The Government of Canada
Richard Brown
Library and Archives Canada
April 9, 2008
Outline
•	What are Documentation Standards?

•	Integrating Recordkeeping with Business Activity through Documentation Standards

•	The Components of a Documentation Standard 

•	Assessment Projects – Status and Early Findings
Documentation Standards and Public Administration
Positioning Documentation Standards
An Appraisal Process for Business Records
A New Business Requirement
•	Business Managers within government institutions must develop documentation standards for business activities  conducted within their assigned management accountability parameters

A Little History and Background
•	Idea of documentation standards first raised by the Information Commissioner in 1999

•	References and allusions to “duty to document” in Gomery Commission and Firearms Registry Inquiry 2004-2006 et al

•	Duty to Document: FEDAA and Justice White Paper 2006

•	Documentation Standards emerge as a developmental priority for government through the ADM TF on Recordkeeping

–	Request from ADMs for LAC to issue a new or revised Transitory Records Authority leads LAC to the proposition of Documentation Standards
–	Proposition based on research, analysis and expert advice
–	Logically responds to Duty to Document

A Little History and Background 2
•	The concept of Documentation Standards is not entirely new

–	Documentation “requirements” in the form of standardized business information are a commonplace in many regulated industries: health care, nuclear safety, environmental protection, transportation, etc.

•	However, they are practically non-existent within public administration unless part of de facto industrial standards related to a sub-set of corollary business functions

•	Typically, current ideas or versions of documentation “standards” are not linked to declarative decision-making about the asset value and management of information resources, nor integrated either strategically or operationally with program or business administration 

 

The Impacts of Documentation Standards 
•	Critical to the integration of recordkeeping with public administration – establishes a new business culture all-inclusive of the foundational resources  $$$ people info  

•	Changes the fundamentals and dynamics of recordkeeping
–	Assigns accountability for recordkeeping to business managers
–	Delegates recordkeeping authority to executive levels
–	Establishes IM-IT specialists as enablers
–	Establishes the identification of information resources having asset value and persistent status as a business priority
–	Establishes new rules and parameters for information resource management as asset development

The Propositions of Documentation Standards: What are They? GC View
•	Documentation Standards are prescriptions for organizational recordkeeping conceived as an information resource development   function 

•	To be developed by government institutions within a codified framework of strategy, methodology and process variably linked to specific business requirements and needs analysis.

•	Within defined and formal parameters of business function and process at the institutional or multi-institutional level, documentation standards
–	Identify the documentary evidence required by organizations to operate and account for business activity
–	Determine the nature, composition and extent of the documentation (regardless of form or format) that needs to be created and kept by organizations to satisfy these evidence requirements
–	Explain how institutions will capture, manage and preserve this evidence over time
The Propositions of Documentation Standards: What are they? GC View 2
•	By identifying the nature, substance and sum of the documentary evidence required by organizations, and by prescribing the manner in which it will be continuously created, captured and managed as a business asset under institutional custody and control within a  recordkeeping repository, documentation standards also

–	Enable the systematic and timely disposal of unnecessary or extraneous information through an accountable and documented records disposition process
–	Distinguish between information resources of incidental value or transitory status to be managed informally by individuals in lieu of organizations in temporary information stores, and
–	Information resources having asset value or persistent status to be formally managed as business records on a continuing basis within an authoritative and fully accessible recordkeeping repository according to institutional protocols 
Links to GC Business Environment 1
•	Management Resources, Results Structure Policy 
–	Strategic Outcomes
–	Program Activity Architecture (PAA), Service Orientation Architecture (SOA)
–	Governance

•	The functional objects of public administration in the Government of Canada are Programs and Services and their related Program and Service Activities

•	Management Accountability Framework (MAF)

Links to GC Business Environment 2
•	The Management Resources and Results Structure established within government institutions will provide the organizational basis and framework for the development of documentation standards by departments and agencies under a proposed GC Recordkeeping Directive or other instrument. 

•	All departments and agencies will be required to develop documentation standards for their Management Resources and Results Structure specifically in reference and application to Program Activities at the level of materiality and granularity identified under institutional Program Activity Architecture or government-wide Service Orientation Architecture. 
How are the Links Practically Established? 
•	The integration of recordkeeping with business activity is achieved through the decision-making and contextual information required to develop a documentation standard for a Program Activity identified under institutional PAA.

•	A GC Documentation Standard is composed of three decision-making and documentation modules, each having a number of requirements expressed as elements  
Module 1: Establishing the Business Contexts for Recordkeeping
•	Program Activity or Sub-Activity
•	Legislative Context
•	GC Business Context
•	Institutional Business Context
•	Program Activity Architecture 
•	Office of Primary Interest
•	Business Process Model and Program Activity Diagram

Library and Archives Canada Program Activity Architecture
Workflow Activity Diagram:
Records Disposition 
Module 2: Analyzing Business Needs and Specifying Documentation Requirements
•	Program Activity Business Requirements
•	Program Activity Documentation Requirements I (Outputs and Products)
•	Program Activity Documentation Requirements II (Parameters)
•	Levels of Documentation Approval and Delegation Authority

Establishing Organizational Reach and Capture
Module 3: Creating, Capturing and Managing Business Records
•	Records Management Requirements
•	Recordkeeping Repository 
•	Records Disposition Authority
•	Access to Information Act Assessment
•	Privacy Act Assessment
•	Litigation Readiness
•	Security Assessment
•	Records Destruction Process
•	Monitoring
•	Audit Status
•	Documentation Standard Approval

Action Plan for Implementation Assessment
Assessment Projects and Status – Early Findings
•	Policy Research Function – Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC)

•	Human Resources Function – Canadian Public Service Agency (CPSA)

•	All Program Activities – Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC)

•	Litigation Readiness – Justice Canada, AAFC, CIC, HC, and others.