Recordkeeping Assessment Tool (RKAT)

Last updated:

November 21, 2022

What is RKAT?

The Recordkeeping Assessment Tool (RKAT) is a new online self-assessment platform developed by Public Record Office Victoria (PROV). The tool is designed to help organisations measure the maturity of their recordkeeping practices against the PROV Standards, which are mandatory for the Victorian public sector (VPS).

While RKAT has been designed for Victorian public offices, individuals and organisations outside of Victorian Government are welcome to use the tool, which is free to access.

How to use RKAT

RKAT can be accessed here.

The tool will guide you through the self-assessment process. You can assess either:

Recordkeeping maturity across your entire organisation; or
Recordkeeping maturity across particular areas or aspects of your organisation.

You can start an assessment, save it and then return to it (the tool will email you a link to access your assessment). Upon completion of an assessment, a report of your results will be emailed to you. Click these links for a sample Summary Report and a Full Report. You can do as many assessments as you like.

You can choose to submit your assessment as 'Test Only' or 'Submit for Organisation'. Test submissions are a great way to get a feel for the assessment process, the questions and the reporting:

They are not recorded as official submissions by PROV
You can generate both full and summary reports
You can return to a test assessment and edit it as many times as you like - each time you can generate updated reports.

Using RKAT for your Recordkeeping Compliance Assessment Program

PROS 19/03 Strategic Management Standard requires every Victorian public office to regularly assess and report on their recordkeeping performance and undertake remedial action when necessary.

PROV recommends that Victorian public offices design a Recordkeeping Compliance Assessment Program using RKAT. By using the RKAT results and reports you can raise awareness of recordkeeping issues, implement improvements, support initiatives and resource proposals and demonstrate improvements over time.

RKAT supports organisations to assess recordkeeping performance (including identification of gaps and weaknesses) using various types of approaches; including measuring:

All aspects of recordkeeping for the whole organisation
Strategic management aspects only
Progress towards digital transition
Individual business unit recordkeeping practices; or
The recordkeeping functionality of individual business systems.

In addition, recordkeeping in all formats or in digital only or physical only formats can be assessed using RKAT.

Examples of compliance programs

Large agency

Scenario: A large agency with multiple business units.

In this example there is a small central records management team responsible for developing recordkeeping strategy and policy, ensuring organisational compliance with recordkeeping Standards and providing training and advice. Responsibility for operational records management is decentralised to business units.

Suggested RKAT program for this example:

Gain commitment from the Information Management Governance Committee (IMGC) for the below recordkeeping compliance assessment program:

Use RKAT to assess the strategic management aspects of recordkeeping every three years and use results to develop a Strategic Plan for improving recordkeeping practices across the organisation. Present the Results Report and Strategic Plan to the IMGC after each assessment. Regularly report progress on delivering Strategic Plan activities to the IMGC.
Use RKAT to measure the recordkeeping practices of five business unites every year as a rolling program. Report individual results to the head and management team within each business unit. Work with each business unit to develop an agreed action plan to improve weaknesses and require them to report progress to you. Prepare a report of business unit results and progress for the IMGC on an annual basis.

Medium agency

Scenario: A medium sized agency has identified issues with a key business system.

In this example, there is a small records management team which ensures that corporate documents are properly captured and controlled in a well-managed EDRMS. However, an external audit has found that a critical business system is not capturing and keeping full and accurate records. This has raised concern that other business systems may have similar problems.

Suggested RKAT program for this example:

Gain commitment from the ICT Steering Committee for the below Business System Recordkeeping Compliance Program:

Identify the critical business systems used across the organisation and place them in priority order
Work with business system owners to use RKAT to assess the recordkeeping performance of the system they are responsible for
Provide each business system owner with the results report and work with them to develop an action plan to rectify or mitigate any issues
Present the report and subsequent action plan for each business system to the ICT Steering Committee
Use these reports to identify any systemic issues and report findings and recommendations to the ICT Steering Committee.

Small agency

Scenario: A small agency is commencing a records management improvement program.

In this example, the Business Manager of an agency with a small number of staff recognises that they need to improve records management practices. The agency uses a shared drive to store electronic documents, but people find it hard to find documents when they need them. There is little confidence that important emails are being saved into it. The Business Manager's assistant keeps a register of important incoming mail and creates a small number of physical files for key documents (i.e. hardcopy correspondence, contracts, Board agendas and minutes).

Suggested RKAT Program for this example:

Gain commitment from the Management Committee to undertake RKAT and use the results to progressively improve processes:

Use the business unit scope of RKAT to assess organisational practices (for a small organisation with limited recordkeeping capacity, using the business unit scope is a practical approach)
Provide the Assessment Report you receive from RKAT to the Management Committee
Develop an Action Plan to progressively improve practices across your agency and obtain Management Committee approval for it
Regularly report progress on implementing the Action Plan to the Management Committee
Use RKAT to assess the agency on an annual or bi-annual basis.

Relationship between the IM3 tool and RKAT

While PROV's Information management maturity measurement (IM3) tool helps organisations to assess the maturity of their information management practices, drawing from a range of Victorian Government Standards and Frameworks (including some of the PROV Standards); RKAT focuses explicitly on assessing the maturity of recordkeeping practices against the requirements of the PROV Standards.

RKAT results may contribute to IM3 tool assessments.

Privacy and data management

All data collected by RKAT will be managed and stored securely by PROV.

PROV may:

Contact you to discuss your results or offer advice or assistance
Develop and publish de-identified summary reports of results from multiple agencies (e.g. at a sector level).

Please note:

Your data will not be disclosed to any other person, body or agency unless:

You give us permission; or
It is required by law.

Acknowledgment

We would like to thank the Stakeholder Advisory Group for assisting with the development of the tool and participating agencies for testing the RKAT content. Thank you Judith Ellis, Enterprise Knowledge Pty Ltd for contributing to the RKAT structure and content. Thanks also to the Grindstone team for designing and building the tool.

Lastly thank you to SAI Global Pty Ltd for kindly granting us permission to use their measurement model and the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services for allowing us to use their individual business systems assessment content.