Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Business Process Documentation with ISO 10244:2010

The new international standard ISO 10244:2010 “Document management - Business process baselining and analysis” was issued on July 16, 2010 by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
This standard reflects two major trends in document management. One trend is represented by the rapidly increasing amount of information that needs to be managed, both internal and external to the organization.
Another trend is represented by the increasing popularity and growing capabilities of electronic document management systems (EDMSs). A number of old issues related to paper based document management are gradually being taken off the agenda with the help of EDMSs, for example:
-  Providing unique identifiers for documents -  Providing appropriate version control and archival
-  Recording time stamps for changes and revisions -  Ensuring document retention over agreed time
-  Identifying individuals issuing and modifying documents -  Providing easy location and tracking of documents
Most current EDMS systems are capable of supporting the functions listed above and prevent document management issues related to malfunctioning in these areas from happening.
As is mentioned by the ISO 10244:2010, some of the issues that many organizations need to handle with respect to document control and process management today are the following:
-  How much and what information needs to be gathered
-  The level of required details for each piece of information
The ISO 10244:2010 standard provides practical advice on the following aspects of process baselining and analysis:
-  defining the level of information required to be gathered,
-  selecting methods of documenting the processes,
-  establishing procedures for analysis of business processes.
The guidelines of ISO 10244:2010 standard include a number of examples and flowcharts. The guidelines are contained on 8 pages, not including bibliography.

See more ISO documents on document and record management @ QPRC Blog

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