Manual for the Design and Implementation of Recordkeeping Systems (dirks)

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Tip: See system design in the context of the organization and its requirements
Identification of strategies for recordkeeping

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Relationship to other steps

Steps C, D and E

It is very difficult to design a successful recordkeeping system if you do not know and understand your recordkeeping requirements and organizational constraints. Without this knowledge, you will potentially waste a lot of time unnecessarily backtracking and re-doing tasks before you accomplish a successful implementation.

To ensure you have adequate knowledge to progress with system design, your work in this step should ideally have as its basis:

the recordkeeping requirements identified and documented during Step C and
any recordkeeping inadequacies or gaps identified during Step D, and
the strategies for improving recordkeeping identified in Step E

to ensure your system design encompasses all requirements.

Step G

In Step F you design and develop your recordkeeping system. Step G involves implementing your revised or new system. There is therefore a close relationship between Steps F and G - in one you develop your solution and in the other you unleash it. If you are undertaking Step F it is important to consider Step G and ensure that the system you have developed is effectively implemented and used across your department/section.

Designing a recordkeeping system

Overview

Steps in recordkeeping system design

Principles of recordkeeping system design

Recordkeeping system design may require a mix of skills

Managing recordkeeping system design

Documenting recordkeeping system design

Overview

This section summarizes the major issues you will need to bear in mind when designing your recordkeeping system. This introductory session flags these issues, while the remainder of Step F provides practical guidance as to how specific aspects of recordkeeping system design can be completed.

Steps in recordkeeping system design

System design in Step F is concerned with implementing strategies identified in Step E, to help you build systems that meet your recordkeeping requirements. System design is therefore based around implementing the Step E strategies:

policy
design
standards, and
implementation.

Your work in this step will involve designing or structuring all components of your system so that it:

is useable and understood by staff
accommodates all recordkeeping tools it needs to support
is sustained by adequate policy and procedure, and
is technically adequate and has the necessary functionality to support recordkeeping requirements.

When you have designed a system that meets all these requirements, you will have established an effective recordkeeping system for your organization.

^ Tip: See system design in the context of the organization and its requirements

The DIRKS methodology is intended to be a very scalable and flexible one. See system design in the context of your own department/section and its requirements and develop a design strategy that is appropriate to these. You do not need to develop all system components listed in this step - keep your focus based on the research you have done, the specific requirements you have identified and the strategies you've selected in the previous steps of the DIRKS methodology.

Principles of recordkeeping system design

Throughout the system design activities you will undertake in this step, it is important to bear two key principles in mind:

taking an iterative approach, and
involving users in the process.

This approach will break your system design approach down into the following activities:

design a bit of the system (e.g. a new procedure, a training package, a piece of software, a paper-based template, or a screen interface)
test it against the requirements, deficiencies and strategies documented during steps C to E
review it with users and other stakeholders
depending on the outcome of the review, either redesign that bit of the system to better meet recordkeeping requirements and incorporate user feedback, or modify the requirement if it is inconsistent with user needs or recordkeeping requirements or infeasible, and
document any changes to the design or the requirements, indicating reasons for the change, and the authority under which the change was made.

The extent to which you can involve users and take an iterative approach during the design phase will depend on time and cost constraints. However, adopting such practices will help ensure that:

a useful, viable system is developed
users develop a sense of system ownership through their involvement, and
users understand the system and use it as it is intended to be used.

Tip: Remember the importance of integration and the long term maintenance of records

When considering your recordkeeping system design, it is important to bear system integration in mind. If you are developing a new technical application to support better recordkeeping, you will need to ensure that this integrates well with other systems currently in place in your department office.

Remember too that some records in the system you are designing will need to be kept for long periods of time. Consider any such long-term requirements during your system design phase. You may have already decided in Step E: ^ Identification of strategies for recordkeeping to use technical standards as a means of improving the long term accessibility of your records, but it is worth considering your longer term requirements at other points through the system design process.

For example, you may want to consider at the outset the system migration strategies that are necessary to sustain the records in the system and the strategies that will be necessary to sustain the security or other management controls that you apply in the system.

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