The Rockfiles Inc.

Guideline K: Archiving Project Management Records

Purpose: Plan for the archiving of project management records, all media. Acquire records systematically and ensure they are stored to meet access expectations.

Project management record types and media may include:

Project planning documents Project team organization charts Budget, cost controls, AFEs, project accounting Purchase orders; change orders; invoices; payments Team reports, and reports to management or stakeholders External communications; vendor communications paper and electronic Contracts and amendments to contracts Sign off documents Learnings

Why are these records retained and retrieved?

Project management records may be required to meet due diligence requirements such as internal and external audits, or to answer queries from project partners.

Who is responsible for keeping these records?

The company retains the original of these records among its diverse functional business units such as accounting, purchasing, project team members, etc., and in a variety of media such as paper, or erecords. The project team will retain a complete set of project management documents that can be retrieved as a unit, and in context. This means that there may be a mixture of originals and photocopies. Where an external agent performs certain project functions, the responsibility for records keeping should be part of those contract discussions. Ownership of electronic transactional data and reports at project completion should also be made a contract discussion item. Project deliverables may be tracked at various levels within company electronic systems. Company systems data follows internal back-up, protection and retention procedures. If a project function is conducted by an external source, such transactions may be retained in external electronic systems. External systems may not integrate readily with company systems. Transfer of ownership discussions should include the acquisition of an industry standard data format for integration with company systems, else negotiation of access requirements with the vendor. Apply zero-based records management: keep only what needs to be kept by law, or by prudent business need. Paper records will follow corporate procedures for paper storage, access, protection and due diligence retention. Electronic records will follow corporate procedures for data storage, access, protection and due diligence retention.

What about electronic records?

Archiving project management records principles:

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The Rockfiles Inc.

The Rockfiles Inc. Guideline K: Archiving Project Management Records

Archiving project management records objectives:

Consolidate all project management records from disparate locations into one, complete set all media such as paper, documents on various LAN servers, e-mail, photos, special graphic charts, etc. Delete duplicates from all locations once a complete set has been assembled.* Instruct project team members to ensure duplicate records are destroyed. Ensure disaster recovery protection is applied to the consolidated set.

Archiving project management records overview of process:

1. Document a plan and estimate resources required to complete the filing project. 2. Appoint a filing project co-ordinator. 3. Develop a file plan that best suits the type of project management records, and to meet records retrieval requirements. A file plan, also known as a filing system, may already be in place. 4. Identify key records owners by their project function. 5. Discuss how to handle obstacles, or filing non-compliance. 6. Define storage, protection, and security requirements for all media - hard copy, electronic, etc. 7. Define retrieval expectations and access permissions. 8. Identify authorized project records copy holders. 9. Prepare and distribute an introductory communication to team members: project overview, timeline, filing expectations. 10. Prepare LAN directories or Outlook Public Folders, following the file plan numbering and naming conventions, to collect or re-locate disparate records into one location. 11. Prepare receiving site for hard copy records: estimate hard copy volumes and frequency of influx; ensure sending and receiving instructions are clear to support staff; ensure proper security for transfer of records from one geographic location to another. 12. Prepare how to instructions for team members to begin filing. 13. Prepare hard copy records for off-site storage. 14. Define on-line records access timeline. 15. Contact IT for removal of on-line records (LAN directories or public folders) when timeline reached.

*NOTE: Team members may resist deleting personal copies of documentation developed for a particular project when they know they efficiently can re-use the document style and contents for another project. There are some workarounds for this dilemma: 1. 2. Give team members access to electronically archived project management materials. Or, Instruct team members to consider their duplicates as precedent material. Strip the electronic copies of project specific terminology and re-name the file to its intended use, e.g., Sample Cost Control Formulae.xls.

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