At 12:36 PM 15/01/2008, Nolene Sherman wrote:
>
>I think the number of functional areas will really depend on how many
>different widgets your company is into. Or how many countries, for that
>matter. The more complicated the structure, the more complicated the
>retention schedule.

Putting on my Australian hat which is well known for following the 
functional classification I would add the following to this 
discussion. Functions are generally not based upon the organisational 
structures as these tend to be more volatile, and based upon things 
such as restructuring. Rather functions should be identified by 
undertaking an analysis of business activity. This analysis is done 
by collecting and reviewing documentary sources and interviewing 
staff to establish a hierarchy of functions, activities and transactions.

A good tool to assist with the development of functional 
classification is designing and implementing recordkeeping systems 
(DIRKS) or a similar IT methodology such as Zachman.

Subject based classification has also been widely used in Australia 
in the past. One of the major issues of subject based classification 
is they are often reflective of the organisational structure which is 
volatile. The other major issue is you tend to find multiple disposal 
classes on the same file because of the subject nature of the file.

Regards
Jenny Evans

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