Records and Information Management

by Joanne Fazzari

System Design and Analysis

Part I: Defining and Understanding

• People• Work• Environment• System• Functional requirements

People

• Lawyers: this group includes Partners and Associates, Lawyers have direct contact with clients and are considered the “money makers” for the firm. Lawyers want to spend as little time possible on administrative functions. Lawyers create the majority of the information that needs to be stored in the system.

• Paralegals; are professionals that support Attorneys. They have more administrative duties and are often responsible for managing large amounts of files.

• Secretaries; their primary focus is to support groups of Attorneys.

• Records Assistants; are support personnel. They support all members of the firm but work mostly with Paralegals and Secretaries.

Goals and Objectives of the People

• Lawyers: their goal is to service the client, they want to be able to retrieve all electronic data quickly and accurately. They are the main creators and recipients in information

• Paralegals; their goal is to support the Attorney and organize what ever information is accumulated in an easy to use manner. While the case or deal is ongoing they want to be able to retrieve specific pieces of information in response to Attorney requests

• Secretaries: their goal is to keep their Attorneys happy. They want to file all information with as little effort as possible. They help create the information however they are not users of the information.

• Records staff; they are the recipients of the information, their goal is to quality control the information, by making sure it is properly labeled. They administer the database that houses the information.

Description of the Work

• Work is all electronic “documents” produced in house by the firm or received from outside the firm. This includes emails, word, excel, power point etc. documents created on the firms document processing system.

• Documents produced outside of the firm. • Paper document productions that are scanned into

the system. • Court papers and SEC filings that are electronically

transmitted to courts and agencies.

Description of the Work

• All work needs to be organized by client matter number and then classified by firm categories and then filed into the database making it accessible to all.

• Work must be evaluated to determine if it is a record and needs to be filed.

Goals and Objectives of the Work

• The main objective of this system is to organize and collect all relevant electronic documents. To maintain them in a manner that is easy to access by all members of the firm and to be able to produce them when requested

Description of the Environment

• The system resides within a law firm. It interacts with word processing systems, practice support systems, email systems, the internet, scanning systems.

• Private Law firms are extremely competitive environments.

• The information they produce and save is their “intellectual capital”.

Goals and Objectives of the Environment

• The environments main function is to service the client, complete corporate deals and win cases.

• The environments secondary function is to protect itself from potential liability by properly maintaining client files.

Organizational Chart

Partners of the firm

(Attorneys)

AdministrationManagement

(Non-Attorneys)

Associates(Attorneys)

SecretariesRecords staff ParalegalsSupport staff(non-records)

Description of the System

• The system is an information management system. It is intended to organize and classify electronic media for both retention and retrieval.

• The system must retain electronic information in its original format.

• Documents must not be modified once they are entered into the system.

Organization Chart of the System

• The system begins with an entity that can have many subsets this is called Client & Matters. All information is associated to a client matter and then grouped by classification.

Organization Chart of the System

Client

Matters (Multiple)

Area of LawAdversarial

Area of LawTransaction

Categories or Classifications (48)

Categories or Classifications (52)

Folders (Paper)

Email

Electronic Documents

Folders (Paper)

Email

Electronic Documents

Boxes sent to warehouse Boxes sent to

warehouse

Goals and Objectives of the System

• The system has two main functions• The first is to accurately store information by

client and matter.• The second is to reuse information as a

knowledge management source.

Operations Checklist of the System

• Associates all information to a client matter and category.

• Multiple users can input information in correct format.

• Multiple users can retrieve information from the system.

• Information remains in its original format, and maintains its integrity.

Non-Functional Requirements

• Knowledge of client matter.• Knowledge of document types and areas of

law. • Ability to differentiate from important

information and irrelevant information (not every email needs to be filed)

Constraints

• Not all users are trained to recognize legal documents and there is no way to check every piece of information entered into the system for accuracy.

• Information is entered by people at their discretion. It is possible for some important information not to be filed.

• The system can become clogged with irrelevant information by over zealous or poorly trained users.

Part II: Gathering the Data

• System Steps and Personnel Responsible

• Calendar of Events during Study

System Steps & Personnel Responsible

• Attorney “opens” a client matter, entity is created in Accounting and sent to records.

• Attorney, Paralegals, and Secretaries begin to create work for the client.

• Work gets coded and entered into the system.• Records staff reviews work for accuracy.• User request information back some share with

others.• Matter closes old information remains until needed

again or archived (10-15 years), or destroyed.

Calendar of Events Oct.15 16 17 18 19 20 21

22 23 24 25 26 27 28

29 30 31 Nov.1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9 10 11

13 14 15 16 15 18 19

20 21 22 23 24 25 26

27 28 29 30 Dec.1 2 3

Interview end users - Assistant .

Interview end users - Paralegals .

Interview power users - Records staff .

Meet with key Attorneys .

Meet to discuss findings .

Meet to with software vendor .

suggestions for improvements to the Records managers and IT .

Roll out upgraded software .

Survey end users and re-evaluate .

Part III: Analyzing the Present System

• Decision Table • Flow Chart• Cost Analysis • Forms Analysis • Entity Diagram • Monitoring Plan • Data Flow Diagram

Decision Table

Conditions/Actions Rules

1 2 3 4

Create electronic media x x x

Receive electronic media x x x

Scan paper to electronic x x x

E-file court papers SEC documents

x x

Flow Chart

Outside paper sources: Client, Other Law firmsresearch

Outside electronic media: Email Documents, PDF’s , Cd’s

sub-process

Scan or convert to

electronic format

1.0

Associate to entity, categorize, index, store in system

In-house electronic media; emails, documents, researchAttorneys

D1 Database of client documents/ files

Attorney

2.0

Create reports of files for each entity, track case or deal

3.0

Run searches to locate precedents of examples of work product

Cost Analysis

• Man hours of staff during review process, re-training, and evaluation

• Travel charges for senior staff• Vendor charges for upgrades to software• Potential hardware upgrades

Forms Analysis• The current

entry form consists of, client matter, category, description, notes

Monitoring Plan

• Informal interviews with end users, “roaming” the office and soliciting users for feedback.

• Reviewing entries through dynamic reports, to check for compliance to standards.

• Compiling use statistics.• Weekly meetings with staff to go over

frequently asked questions and observations.

Part IV: Designing an Improved System

• Recommendations;• Many suggestions were offered to make the

program easier to use. The biggest stumbling block was the lack of compliance which reflects a culture of distrust in systems in general. the number one reason that users did not file was the fear of not being ale to retrieve their information quickly.

Recommendations

• Begin the classification process before the email is composed.

• Integrate filing “tree” into outlook, it should replace the users Archives.

• Create bridges between other firm databases and filing system.

• Reduce the number of choices for classifications.

• Create “filtered” views by area of practice.

Part V: Evaluation

– Usability: Users and Testing and Iteration • Task Analysis • Ethnographic Observation • Surveys

• Heuristic evaluation

Usability: Users and Testing and Iteration

• Task Analysis: • Email classification too many choices people

do not want to scroll through they often select one of the first five.

• Records system is a separate action requires additional steps.

• Search screen is not intuitive, users often call for assistance.

Ethnographic Observation

• It is not really possible to observe most end users unobtrusively.

• It was possible to sit with a few selected users and get feedback while they worked.

• Only the power users records staff could be observed unobtrusively. For the most part they had mastered the system and where efficient and accurate when using it.

General Observation

• If the system was not used often it was not intuitive and required the user to refer back to tip sheets.

• More frequent users found the system simplistic and easy to use.

• Classifying documents that the filer was unfamiliar with took the most time.

• People that did not use the system had developed their own organization of information.

• Gaining trust of skeptical users took a long time, and repeated retraining.

• Satisfied users encouraged others to also use the system

Surveys

• End users were asked several questions:• How often do you use the system?• What so you like/dislike about the system?• If you could change something about the

system what would you change?• Do you feel that the training you received was

adequate?• Will the upgrades to the system make you use it

more? less? the same?

Heuristic evaluation

• Learnability (e.g. intuitive navigation)– While the system has easy to recognize icons, it is not intuitive and

requires consistent use to become second nature to the user.

• Efficiency of use– Once learned the system offers a simple and efficient filing method

• Memorability– People who used the system 2-3 times a week found it easy to

remember

• Few and noncatastrophic errors– end users can make a variety of mistakes, all of them can be easily

repaired by records staff and non effect the integrity of the database

Subjective satisfaction- Frequent users where highly satisfied

Conclusions

• A system that has multiple users for data entry can be difficult to quality control.

• Even an excellent system has to overcome the cultural stigma of its environment to be successful.

• Frequent open interactions with users can help break down barriers, and result in a better system.

• A good software vendor and IT department is crucial for success.