Department of Defense Records Strategy

Section 3101 of title 44, United States Code, provides that "the head of each Federal agency shall make and preserve records containing adequate and proper documentation of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, and essential transactions of the agency and designed to furnish the information necessary to protect the legal and financial rights of the Government and of persons directly affected by the agency's activities." This documentation also provides a historical foundation to enable analysis and improvements for operation development and mission execution. Records also provide decision makers with authoritative information to improve the full spectrum of business processes from finance to acquisition to supply chains to human resource management. The lack of proper records management (RM) practices drives material weakness across the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), often making clean audits and routine accessibility more difficult or impractical. 5 Improvements to RM will lead to an accurate historical record that enables DoD's efficiency and effectiveness, improves the Department's stewardship of resources, and enhances mission readiness. The information managed as records cannot be fully leveraged while RM remains loosely connected, if not disconnected, from information technology (IT) acquisition and operations. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) identified this divide between RM and IT as the area in need of most improvement in its Inspection Series Summary Report of DoD. 6 Records created or maintained within an IT system or service are considered an afterthought instead of being considered during an IT system's or service's design, development, enhancement, and implementation. Over the last two decades, approaches to electronic records management (ERM) have been considered on a system-by-system basis.