ISO 16175 Principles and Functional Requirements for Records in Electronic Office Environments

ISO 16175 provides internationally agreed principles and functional requirements for software used to create and manage digital information in office environments.

The standard is divided into three parts.

1. Overview and statement of principles – sets out the fundamental principles for the management of records in a digital environment.
2. Guidelines and functional requirements for digital records management systems – sets out the functional requirements for software systems that are designed principally to manage records.
3. Guidelines and functional requirements for records in business systems – sets out the functional requirements for the management of information held in business systems.

Use of the standard in the Australian Government

The National Archives of Australia endorses the use of this standard by Australian Government agencies. This will help to maximise consistency across agencies in software used to create and manage digital records. The standard will assist agencies to:

• review the records management functionality, or assess the compliance of an existing system
• identify records management functionality to include in a design specification when building, upgrading or acquiring new systems.

The principles and functional requirements in the standard enable agencies to better manage their business information through:

• supporting business needs by enabling greater effectiveness and efficiency of operations
• ensuring greater accountability, transparency and enhanced service delivery
• increasing general awareness of automated records management capabilities
• providing a foundation for government agencies, the National Archives and the wider information management profession to engage with the software vendor community.

The Archives encourages software vendors to self-assess their products against the standard.

Getting the most from ISO 16175

The functional requirements set out in the standard are based on the minimum requirements for records functionality defined in the Australian and international standard for records management, AS ISO 15489.

The standard does not include the specifications for the long term preservation of digital records. These requirements should be addressed separately within a digital preservation framework.

More detailed advice on understanding how to apply the standard is provided below:

Getting the most from ISO 16175 part 2 - Guidelines and functional requirements for records in digital records management systems

Getting the most from ISO 16175 part 3 - Guidelines and functional requirements for records in business systems

Copies of ISO 16175 Principles and Functional Requirements for Records in Electronic Office Environments can be purchased from SAI Global.