US agencies release Government-wide Records Management Profile

January 13, 2006: Proving at least in the USA, records management is being taken seriously, three agencies have combined to produce version 1.0 of federal records management protocols.

Version 1.0 of the Federal Enterprise Architecture Records Management Profile (FEARM), produced by National Archives and Records Administration, the Office of Management and Budget Architecture and Infrastructure Committee, and the Federal Chief Information Officers Council, outlines methods by which organisations can take a consistent approach to RM across the board.

According to the overview: "Today, many Federal agencies use disparate and inefficient processes to manage their records, often managing them as afterthoughts when creating new records or systems of records. In many cases, agency business resources and information technology resources are not integrated. The failure to manage records effectively exposes agencies to considerable risks to business operations and mission success.

"To address this problem, agency decision-makers need guidance to help them: (1) Define records management requirements, standard operating models, and business rules for each stage of the records life cycle and the systems development life cycle, and (2) Apply records management policies and procedures consistently across the enterprise regardless of the format and media of the records, process or project scope, technology or application. "

Post-Enron, and in an attempt to enforce cross-agency compliance, the United States already implements the Federal Records Act in combination with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The new FEARM policy takes these into account and should be seen in our region as a key document in RM going forward.

IDM will be analysing the document in due course, and will be updating our region on the implications.

Do we need a federal RM policy?

Related Article:
Federal Government Called to Legislate Document Retention