Records and Information Management (RIM), in many industries, is a fading requirement. Don't get me wrong; archivists in city clerk offices, holders of historical artefacts and documents, much of the medical industry - particularly in different parts of the world, and other areas of information management will still thrive with RIM professionals, librarians, and archivists. However, in the engineering sector - RIM just does not cut it anymore.

The function of storing, retention, archiving, and retrieving still exists, but in the past, companies only had RIM; they did not have Documentation and Data Managers, or professionally educated Document Control departments.

RIM professionals are not qualified to create procedures and processes in Documentation and Data Management, as they do not have the knowledge foundation to manage information from the pre-creation through life-cycle of documents and drawings before they become records.

With the advancement in technology has come cloud solutions, integration of documentation from the engineering cycle into the world of Big Data (a large area of focus for my organizations), IoT, software platforms, going paperless (which, by the way, does not just mean that you scan your documentation) ... 

Organisations have spent ridiculous amounts of time and money on RIM, Business Analyst (BA), and IT professionals to build and implement Documentation Management structures with less than adequate results.

It is not their fault that these individuals cannot competently provide the structures needed, as there has not previously been the education platform that will provide the documentation management professional resources in this field. This is changing, because it has to change. Companies still have structures that invite safety and environmental disasters, and facility personnel are still dying from a lack of correct, quality, and complete information.

A less dramatic consequence is that most companies are running over budget and over schedule, and employ an excessive number of project personnel - all because documented information lacks structure and requires copious amounts of unnecessary attention. This compounds the amount of documentation, and the number of variations on creation and management strategies. These strategies all conflict, resulting in a massive loss to the overall body of knowledge.

RIM focuses on proper storage and accessibility, but misses the mark on the processes to ensure accuracy of information when documentation is created. BAs view documentation and data management from a high level (business workflow) perspective. IT professionals look at it from an infrastructure and software perspective. None of these will resolve the issues that organizations in the engineering sector face.

If they did, documentation would not be in the disastrous state that it currently is in.

This is why CDDMAC as an association exists; to standardize the process development in Documentation and Data Management and certify professionally educated individuals, and complaint companies. This is why dmeHolistic exists; to create the professional education required to finally evolve the management of documentation.

Learn more about CDDMAC here, and view available education options in documentation and data management here.

Bernadette Bosse is Chairman and CEO of CDDMAC, CDDMAC, a not-for-profit association that publishes standards, best practices, and guidelines in data and documentation management. She is also President and CEO of dms360 Ltd, a Canadian Documentation and Data Management consulting firm.