At the "London" Plenary in May, ISO TC 46/SC 11 resolved that Ad Hoc Group 3 - Structured Data Environments (AHG3) continue up to May 2021 to undertake further research and market assessment of the management of records in structured data environments. AHG3 will be presenting options to pursue one or more preliminary work items.
As digitalization in society broadens and deepens, some of the most critical records are made and kept in sets of data. More and more often, structured data records become the only records an organization has to provide authoritative evidence for its decision-making and business delivery. If not properly managed, their value as evidence could diminish, adversely impacting the productivity, compliance, trustworthiness, and reputation of the organization.
Building on the newly revised ISO 16175 - Part 1, relating to electronic records management in any applications, AHG3 is looking at the potential benefits of tools to provide system designers and owners specific guidance on appropriate identification, capture, management, preservation, retention, and disposition of structured data records. The goals would be to ensure the adequacy, authenticity, integrity, reliability, and usability (Source: ISO 15489) of structured data records in business systems.
Potential work under consideration by AHG3 includes:
- examining the concept and characteristics of record(s) in a structured data environment,
- pinpointing technological and management issues and challenges related to records management,
- providing a set of principles, best practices, and case studies for articulating and incorporating records management consideration and requirements into the design and development of business systems creating and managing structured data records,
- highlighting records management implications/considerations in scenarios such as data transfer, data sharing, and data integration, and
- introducing a strategic approach of including records management as part of the organization's data strategy and data governance to improve the overall data management maturity.
The primary audiences envisioned for this research are data strategists, systems designers, system business owners, data management professionals, database professionals, and the records management professionals working with them to ensure the application of appropriate records management controls to structured data. Central to these potential initiatives are business systems, which are defined as automated systems that create or manage data about an organization's activities. They can be e-commerce systems, client-relationship management systems, purpose-built or customized databases, or
finance or human resources systems. Business systems are typified by containing dynamic data that is commonly subject to constant updates (timely), able to be transformed (manipulable), and holds current data (non-redundant).
AHG3 will be presenting its conclusions and proposals for further work on records management in structured data environments by May 2021.