DMS Specifications Assignment

In your DRM Environment Report, you described the organization/department that is the focus of your project work in EDRMS. In this assignment, you will consider the requirements of a document management system that would support your DRM environment.

As before, you may need to do some basic research to adequately describe a DMS for your selected environment. Making reasonable assumptions as to system requirements is perfectly fine – many requirements, such as version control, are standard elements. I am focused on how well you understand the principles and components of document management.

Overview

You will list 10 system requirements related to document creation, access, management, destruction, etc. that are applicable to your electronic DRM environment. In a real-world situation, you also would need a policy for managing any physical documents and files, as well.

Focus

This should have been addressed when you created your DRM Environment Report, but be sure the focus of your EDMS design is on document management and that you are using specifications for an electronic system. You are considering the management of documents – not customer service issues, inventory, etc. 

Example How-To

The focus of system specifications is NOT on a particular document type or task. However, that document or task can be what drives the need for the specification(s).

Here’s an example: Say in your environment, patient medical forms are filled out by hand.

Based on this document and task, you could determine specifications like this: The system needs a way to digitize paper, pictures, etc. It also needs a way for the staff to transfer (type in) that information into the patient’s account profile. If the medical office uses a proprietary patient management software, the system would need to interface with that system in order to access and manage those documents.

So, specifications might be:

Scanner capable of scanning in color at 300 dpi and at 11×17 inches.

Interface with both Windows and Mac computers an allow manual input and document creation.

The document management system needs to interface with Patient Management Source system/software.

Boom. There are 3 specifications from just one task/document. I also would strongly suggest including a specification that covers the types of file formats the system needs to be able to manage/create/view, as well. That makes 4 specifications right there. (See other examples in DMS Functionalities below.)

Format & Length

• Follow the format below for creating your report. Use the headings provided below.
• Your report should be single-spaced paragraphs with a blank space between each paragraph. This is the standard Word format, so you should have to do anything to change your settings. Your document basically should look a lot like how this page looks.
• This report should be about 3 – 4 pages long. It may be longer depending upon how you format it (for example, bullets or paragraphs) and any extra detail you decide to include.

Submit in Word or PDF format. Put only your name in the header and use only the report title on the first page.

Introduction

This should be a brief explanation of what this report is, who it is for (the selected environment), and why you created it for your selected EDM environment.

Document Management System Functionalities

List 10 functions required in your EDMS. You can use bullets or numbers, or you can create each item as its own paragraph/section and leave a blank in between each specification.

For our purposes, these can be rather generic though they should be applicable to your particular organization/department. While security always is an important requirement, remember, too, that EDMS are focused more on streamlining workflow, quick access, maintaining consistency, etc.

Examples might include: scanner integration, search by key word, search by author, support bar code reading, manual input, versioning, scale to 100 concurrent users, spell check, batch processing, phone system integration, types of file formats supported, integrate with existing systems, remote access, etc. If it involves a document, the item’s use, access, storage, or disposal, it has the potential of being a requirement of the system. (Remember that “document” is a catch-all word for any object that is part of the daily functioning of the organization – recorded phone calls, maps, etc. are documents, too.)

NOTE: You can use some of these listed above, but you must include some of your own requirements that are relevant to your particular organization/department.

NOTE: In all cases, provide additional details to flesh out the functionality requirement (e.g., scanner integration to digitize documents and photos in color at up to 13×19 inches).

Conclusion

This should be a brief concluding remark or two that summarizes your plan.

References

Include references as applicable. This reference list is a bit different from an APA list. I want you to include any researched sources you use, but I also want you to include whether you conducted interviews, surveys, etc. I realize most of you will be creating your project based upon researched data as opposed to your own work environment.