From my perspective:
Start where you are.  Your records policies can be the measuring stick.

If you are at the beginning, you or someone doing your audit/monitor/measure function can ask simple questions:
1) Have you read the records policy?
2) Do you know the definition of a record?
3) Do you what the retention schedule is, where to find it, and how to use it?

Then move to more practical questions:
1) Are records distinguished from convenience copies?
2) Are retention series assigned to records?
3) Are records under Legal Hold Orders flagged for preservation?

You can get increasingly probing.  For example, ask to see records that you know are past their retention period.  If the area being audited can produce them, you know there is over-retention.

Finally (for the first chapter), if their are electronic records with long-term retention needs, ask if the records will survive as the OS, app software, file format, CPUs, peripherals, and storage media go obsolete.

Of course, this just scratches the surface, but I offer it as a way to start.

Good luck,

Gordy

Gordon E.J. Hoke, CRM, IGP
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Waukegan, IL USA



Gordon E.J. Hoke, CRM

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