Federal Records Management

BPA Benchmarking Report

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BPA Benchmarking Team

The BPA Benchmarking Team consisted of representatives of NWML and NR. It included overlapping membership from the Electronic Records Services Team (Barbara Byers) and the E-Systems Team (Meg Phillips).

Meg Phillips, NRBM, lead
Larry Baume, NWML
Barbara Byers, NREM
Tom Cotter, NWML
Marilla Guptil, NRCM

Benchmarking Process and Timeline

Keeping in mind its broad mandate to conduct benchmarking interviews with "government agencies, university research groups, and private service providers" who have successfully engaged in the use of business process analysis and systems development in support of electronic recordkeeping, the Benchmarking Team reviewed the project parameters, the benchmarking process, and potential benchmarking sites during the First Quarter of Fiscal Year 2005. In the Second Quarter, we developed a list of interview questions, finalized a list of benchmarking sites, and drafted a formal interview invitation for the signature of NARA's Director of Life Cycle Management. In March of 2005, we began informal contact with the benchmarking sites to determine their interest in participating and which of their staff members we should interview. Once we identified the appropriate contact people and had a preliminary expression of interest, we sent the formal invitation and the Benchmarking Questionnaire to the interviewees and scheduled the interviews.

The Team conducted five telephone and two in-person benchmarking interviews covering six methodologies between March 30, 2005 and June 8, 2005. (We interviewed two Australian sites about one process.) During each two-hour interview, one team member asked questions, while one or two other team members took notes to capture the responses. Following each interview, all notes were consolidated for review and validation by each benchmarking partner. The Team accepted recommended changes, giving interviewees the final say in how we described their processes. In most cases, the Team had detailed documentation of the processes in question by the time of the interview, either because the documentation was publicly available or because the site had shared its documentation with NARA. The Team used a combination of documentation and interview responses to learn as much as possible about the methodologies.

Schedule of Benchmarking Interviews

Date	Methodology	Site	Interviewees
3/30/05	Australian Standard: Work Process Analysis for Recordkeeping, AS 5090-2003	National Archives of Australia	Anne Liddell, Assistant Director of Recordkeeping Policy Colleen McEwen, Director of Information Management
4/6/05	Australian Standard: Work Process Analysis for Recordkeeping, AS 5090-2003	University of Sydney, Australia	Anne Picot, Assistant Manager, Archives and Records Management Services
4/7/05	Trustworthy Information Systems Handbook	Minnesota State Archives	Robert Horton, State Archivist
4/20/05	USPTO Electronic Records Management Technical Standard and Guideline, July 2002	US Patent and Trademark Office	Susan Brown, USPTO Records Officer Walter Bohorfoush, USPTO Electronic Records Team Leader
4/26/05	FBI ERKC - Electronic Recordkeeping Certification Manual	Federal Bureau of Investigation	Michael Miller, Section Chief, Records Automation Section Elizabeth Fugitt, Unit Chief, Records Management Applications Unit
5/13/05	Center for Technology in Government: Models for Action tool	[New York State Archives]	lan Kowlowitz, Program Technology Analyst, NY State Office for Technology
6/8/05	Electronic Recordkeeping System (ERKS) Requirements	Central Intelligence Agency	Kyle Robson, Chief Information Management Officer for the Directorate of Support

The team would like to thank all of the interviewees for their participation and insight. Without their expertise, generosity, and willingness to help, this project would not have been possible.

In June, July, and August 2005, the BPA Benchmarking Team analyzed the findings and wrote the final report.

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