Karen's question about whether IT's screen 'forms' should be part of the
approval process is a common dilemma that many face.  Unfortunately there
is no single answer, but there are some guidelines you can follow.  The
original idea behind forms review committees was to ensure legal accuracy,
easy of use, and consistency.  To that end, a forms review committee should
be involved in on-line form applications that are external-facing,
particularly for forms that are part of a transaction to collect
information used as a part of a process that has subsequent actions.  This
is particularly true of the transaction requires that the information be
kept as a part of an electronic record.  Online forms that merely collect
raw data, such as request to join a listserv, and not considered a
transaction and therefore don't really fit the intent of the forms review
committee.  The IT shop may still have a set of guidelines for look and
feel and usability issues, however, and these guidelines can fulfill many
of the 'forms guidelines' if properly developed.

As a practical matter, it has been my experience that most forms review
committees lack the detailed technical expertise to support these types of
electronic forms.  Not only that, but the technology platforms often have
constraints that force e-forms developers to develop the form in accordance
with the products' technical capabilities and not necessarily the vision of
the forms review committee.  Making it really hard is that e-forms also
have particular techniques that directly affect user accuracy or
productivity.  What you can't have is an e-forms application that also
serves as the production data entry application and then have the forms
review committee add requirements that end up lowering productivity.

My suggestion would be for the forms review committee to work with the
e-forms developers to document a set of published guidelines that can be
used for both paper and e-forms, but with special emphasis into things on
the e-forms that are generally static (like logos) and can be standardized
where possible.

As a political FYI, if the forms review committee tries to go toe to toe
with IT, the winner will almost always be IT since they go back to the user
department and say "The forms review committee won't let us do it our way
and we're going to have to charge you an extra $250K to comply with their
standards that we don't think will work."  If you can't win, it is best to
find a way to be viewed as helpful instead of an obstruction.

-Dan




Dan Elam
Vice President
804-342-7400
Visit www.eVisory.com for unbiased information regarding document and
records management technology.

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