ISO 16175 Principles and Functional Requirements for Records in Electronic Office Environments: use of the standard in the Australian Government

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

The National Archives of Australia endorses the use of ISO 16175 for use by Australian Government agencies.

This advice interprets and explains ISO 16175 for the Australian Government jurisdiction.

ISO 16175, and this accompanying guide, replace National Archives products Specifications for Business Information Systems Software and Specifications for Electronic Records Management Systems Software and their accompanying implementation guidelines.

About ISO 16175

ISO 16175 is in three parts.

Part 1 : Overview and Statement of Principles gives background information and sets out fundamental principles. It is a useful executive overview.

Part 2 : Guidelines and functional requirements for digital records management systems sets out functional requirements for software systems that are designed principally to manage records.

Part 3 : Guidelines and functional requirements for records in business systems sets requirements for the management of information that is still in use and is held within business systems. Business systems include line-of-business, case management, content management, human resource management and financial management systems. ISO 16175-3 does not provide a complete specification but is a starting point for further development into application-specific functional requirements. Agencies will need to extend these functional requirements based on their business, technical and jurisdictional environments.

The functional requirements set out in ISO 16175 are based on the minimum requirements for records functionality defined in the Australian and International standards for records management, AS/ISO 15489.

ISO 16175 and these interpretive guidelines will be of use to records managers, business system owners, ICT staff and others in Australian Government agencies who need to evaluate, integrate or point to information about records management functionality in systems, as well as to software developers and vendors interested in the application of the standard in the Australian Government.

ISO 16175 does not cover functional requirements for the long-term preservation of digital records. National Archives provides advice on preserving digital records.

General requirements

Date and time

Dates in electronic office systems must be recorded in ISO 8601 extended format in order to be machine readable, i.e. YYYY-MM-DD and YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss. Times must be in 24 hour time. Dates in the form DD/MM/YYYY and am/pm times are not permitted as they are not machine readable.

Records management metadata

Part 2 Requirement 120 refers to records management metadata. Records management metadata is a master control record for recordkeeping systems (Administrative Functions Disposal Authority, Class No 1490). As such, the disposal action for metadata is 'retain as national archives'. Business rules and configuration settings for agency metadata, including development records and requests for changes, are also 'retain as national archives' (Administrative Functions Disposal Authority, Class No 1495).

Interpretation

ISO 16175 terminology	Interpret as
Archival authority Archival institution Jurisdictional authority Relevant archival institution Relevant jurisdictional authorities	National Archives of Australia
Retain as permanent archive	Retain as national archives
Disposition	Sentencing and disposal
Disposition authority Disposal schedule Retention schedule Disposition action	Records Authority
Relevant metadata standards Records management metadata Jurisdiction-specific [metadata] elements set Identified metadata standard	Australian Government Recordkeeping Metadata Standard version 2.0 (pdf, 519kb)
Relevant external disposition management mechanism	Better Practice Guide - Risk Management See also: AS 4360-2004 Risk Management ISO 31000:2009 Risk management – Principles and guidelines
Legal obligations Legislative obligations	Includes, but not limited to: Archives Act 1983 Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act 1997 Electronic Transactions Act 1999 Evidence Act 1995 Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997 Freedom of Information Act 1982 Privacy Act 1988 Public Service Act 1999 Any agency-specific legislation
Existing information management and security policies Security categories Security classifications Security clearance Security level	See: Australian Government Protective Security Policy Framework Australian Government Information Security Manual
Standardised vocabularies and taxonomies Records classification tool	Includes but is not limited to: Australia's Government Interactive Functions Thesaurus Developing a Functions Thesaurus: Guidelines for Commonwealth Agencies (pdf, 624kb) Introduction to Keyword AAA (pdf, 292kb)
Non-records management functional requirements	AGIMO guidelines Commonwealth Procurement Guidelines
Records classification scheme Business classification scheme Subject-based classification scheme Functional classification scheme	Overview of Classification Tools for Records Management from the National Archives of Australia (pdf, 1.37mb)
Capture of digital records	Digital Recordkeeping Guidelines for Creating, Managing and Preserving Digital Records (pdf, 660kb) Making, Keeping and Using Digital Records (pdf, 286kb)
Interoperability	Interoperability Frameworks
Open formats	Open formats: Are based on open standards: the full specification of the standard should be publicly available without restriction. Are community developed: standards should be developed by a community rather than by a single vendor or interest group. Have multiple implementations: for a format to be truly open, multiple separate software implementations created by different authors or organisations should exist. Have no licensing constraints: there should be no intellectual property licensing or patent restrictions on the use of a format.

Need more help?

If you work for an Australian Government agency and you have any questions about implementation of ISO 16175 you can contact the Archives Agency Service Centre.

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