4. Archiving is organising and designing information and processes
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Statement During the design of work processes and information systems, choices about how information is archived are to be made. Rational One of the most crucial archiving tasks is appraisal - deciding how long information has to remain available. Ideally, these decisions are made during the design of business processes: the owner of the process analyses the pieces of data and metadata which are received or created during the process, organises the information into logical groups (records, entities, etc.) and determines the information value of these groups. Such analysis is the key to making appropriate decisions regarding information life cycle aspects in business process and information system design. Implications - Records managers and archivists should be involved through all phases of designing work processes and information systems to ensure that the aspects of information value and lifecycle management are taken into account from the very beginning and considered in all relevant design decisions. - The organisation of information according to its value allows process owners to implement information systems in a way that respects these decisions. For example, it is possible to introduce functionality to delete less relevant data as soon as possible or set up actions to export valuable long-term information into dedicated archival systems or introduce preservation actions inside the source system. - The value of information is implementation-independent. Once the value of information has been decided, appropriate technical solutions need to be implemented in all systems where the information is held throughout its lifecycle. - Not addressing archival considerations during the design of business processes and information systems can significantly increase the resources needed for the continuous maintenance of operations and legal compliance. Notes (if any) Archiving is primarily a designing activity focused on keeping information components of transactions over time considered as relevant. Archiving is focused on “replaying of sequences of actions in order to prove or disprove the state of something or the conclusions reached.” (Upward, Read, Oliver, Evans: Recordkeeping Informatics for a Networked Age, Monash University Publishing, 2018) Please also see application principles 12 and 13 for the implementation aspects.