Folder Structure and Document Naming Convention Best Practices
- 1. Folder Structure and Document Naming Convention Best Practices Introduction Many RecordsManagement (RM) or Enterprise ContentManagement(ECM) groupsworkto develop and implementdocumentmanagementbestpracticesandstandardswithintheir organizations,toassist withefficientandeffectivemanagementof documentsandrecords. However,whilestandardslikeISO15489, ARMA's GARPprinciples,etc. provideguidelinesof what composesa gooddocumentmanagement program,theydonotgive specificexamplesof exactly how to implementthese principles. The challengeliesindeterminingjustthat: designingandimplementing foundational partstosupportan ECMprogram while maintainingorimproving staff'sabilitytofind documents. In RM programs,'big'subjectssuchas documentlifecycle/ destruction,Retentionandclassification schedulesgetalotof attention. Aswell theyshould,beingcritical aspectsof recordsmanagement;but equallyasimportant (if notmore) isusersbeingable to find theirdataeasilyandeffectively. Thisdocumentgivesseveral scenariostoencourage thinkingaboutdifferingperspectivesand preferencesbyusers. Hopefullytheywill facilitate staff /departmentdiscussionswhenitcomesto creatingsuitable documentnamingconventions. Ensuringastructure anddocumentnaming convention works involvesconsiderationoncurrentandfuture needs,andthinkingaboutthese scenarioswill helpavoidcommonpitfallswhencreatingconventionsandstructures. The primarygoal of thisdocumentisto helpdefine /establishinformationsome governance best practiceswithinyourdepartmentororganization. Withmany ideas, suggestions,concepts,etc. surroundingthis subject,thisdocumentdoesnotcoverall the aspects. Also donot take these as definitivepractices,but as a directiononthe subject. Metadatabeyondfolderanddocumentnames will not be coveredinthisdocument,butsome of the conceptswouldalsoapply. Best Practices These bestpracticeswill have rulesandexamplestakenfromthe pointof view of usersnavigatingto documents,whetherthe foldersare ina database or on a shareddrive. Folderpath ‘depth’:limit to 3 levelsdeepfora collectionor department documents. An example of acollectionmightbe Surface files. Departmentdocumentscouldbe theirinternal meetingminutes,projectdocuments,drafts,collaborationdocuments,etc. It’simportantto note that insome casesthiscan be challenging,due to the quantityand/orvarietyof documents. Askyourself: “If thisfolderwill onlycontainasmall numberof documents,isitnecessary?” “Couldthe documentname have the foldername addedtoit,removingthe needforthisfolder?”
- 2. “Is breakingthese documentsupfurtherwiththisfolder necessaryorimportant” “Is thisgoodmetadata?” PoorStructure example: VendorData A Aboline Diagnostics B BagelsR Us Bernie’sVetservice C CountingCars Inc. In thisexample,there are onlyafewvendordocuments,andthe numberof vendordocs isgoingto remainsmall foryearsto come. Segregatingthemintofoldersdoesn’tofferadditional value. Having ‘letter’foldersisawastedlayerof foldersthatusershave tonavigate thoughto getto the documents theyneed. Aslongas the applicationorsharedfoldersortsthe documentsinalphabetical order,it servesthatpurpose. Itis a commonpitfall tocreate foldersforpotential futureneeds,asmanywill have fewdocumentsorbe emptyforyears afterwards. Expandafolderstructure when it'sneeded. BetterStructure Example: VendorData Aboline Diagnostics BagelsR Us Bernie’sVetservice CountingCars Inc. Oppositely, howmanydocumentsperfolderistoomany? If there were x documentsinthisfolder, organizedalphabetically,wouldthatbe toomanydocumentsforone folder? Canusersstill easilyfind documentsbysimplyscrollingdownthe foldercontentswhenthereare 100, 500, 1000 docs? Answeringthisquestionisagreatway to determinewhen new folder(s) shouldbe createdtobreakthe documentsupfurther. For each Folderlevel, narrowthe scope. The 1st foldershouldhave the broadest scope inthe foldername.Foldersinsidethe 1st folder(2nd level) shouldhave more focusinthe foldername,etc. Thispractice in particularsounds logical,butthe challenge ariseswhendifferent perspectivesare taken intoaccountas differentpeoplemaythink 'logical'differently. Lookatthiswell file folderstructure example: Well files Alberta W3 W4
- 3. BritishColumbia Saskatchewan Meridians W1 W2 W3 W4 In the above example, thisBroad-Narrow practice hasbeenappliedcorrectly,butW3 & W4 are foundin twodifferentspots. Joe may thinkaboutwell filesbyProvince before he thinksaboutthembymeridian,andSallymaythink aboutit froma meridianpointof view. If Joe didn'treadall the optionsavailabletohimandsimply navigatedintothe 'Alberta'Folder,he eitherwouldn't findwhathe waslookingforor he may add new documentsthatSallywouldn'tfind,asshe chose the meridianfolderoptionandlookedthere. Thiscan leadto documentsnotbeingfound,orthe same document beingstored inmultiplelocations - which one isbeingkeptupto date? The larger the folderstructure ornumberof usersusingit,the greaterthe chancesof duplicate folders appearingindifferentplacesbecomes. How can thisbe prevented? Once the folderstructure is established,lockit down! A commonoccurrence aftera structure has beendesignedand implementedisunplanned/ unwarrantedfoldergrowth. Aftertakingtime todevelopandestablishafolderstructure,the bestwaytokeepitfrom growing unmanaged isto limitthe numberof staff whowill maintainandexpandthe folderstructure. Inthe previousexample,if Joe decidedthe well filesshouldbe organizedby Province andwaspermittedto add itintothe structure,he may create the AlbertaFolderhimself;increasingthe potential for documentstobe placedinthe wrongplace. Once the structure isplanned,developamanageable(ie:keepitsimple) permissionsmodeltomaintain whocan addfoldersandwhere. Thisshouldremove the potentialof unwantedstructure growth. Of course,folderstructuresdoneedtogrow and change overtime,soappointstructure 'Manager(s)' withinthe group to determineif astructure needstogrow and acts accordingly. This person(s) should understandthe structure designandhave the authoritytosay'No' to requeststhatdon't fitintothe structure design /intention. Give the teamthatusesthe folderstructure the abilitytobe held accountable forit,but wisely. Ensure the Folderor Document name is intuitive. To helpexplainthisconcept,hereisanexample where the same policy documenthastwodifferent names. The conceptsmentionedhere couldbe appliedtofoldersaswell,butthis example will use documentnamingconventions.
- 4. 1-7566 05/03/2013 1-7566 Illegal DumpingMay3 2013 Namingdocumentsbypolicynumberonlyisagoodway to keepa documentname shorterandunique, but itonlyworkswhenALL usersknowthe procedure numbersandsearchbythem. If someone was lookingforthe Illegal Dumpingpolicybutdidn'tknow the policynumber,it'sunlikely they wouldfind the documentquickly bybrowsing. A commonpitfall iswhendocumentsare storedina database andthe documentnamingconventions excludeimportantmetadatainthe documentname and usersexpect the database'ssearchengine to locate the document. Trustinginthe searchengine iscertainlyeasierthanestablishingandapplyingan intuitive documentnamingconvention. But,whathappensif the searchengine isdown,auserdoesn't like / trust the searchtool, typosin the documentname, etc? What if searchingby'Illegal Dumping' produced'google'results, toomanyforstaff to quicklydetermine whichresultiswhattheywant? What if the search engine doesn’tworkverywell? Do not allowdatabase searchenginestobe acrutch for poor documentnamingconventions. Instead, searchenginesshould complementthe folderstructure and/ordocumentnamingconventions. Not only wouldthisofferusersoptions onhow theysearch /browse fordocuments basedontheirpersonal preference,itoffersabackupfor the searchengine. Askyourself,doesthisdocumentname containenoughdetailstoidentifythe documentcontents,or doesthe name require the parentfoldername forfurthercontext? Usingthe 1-7566 example again, howdo youknowthisis a policy document? Itwasmentionedinthatexample,butnothinginthe name givesthataway,unlessthe numberseriesisuniquetopoliciesandall staff are aware of that. Perhaps changingthe name to '1-7566 Illegal DumpingPolicyMay3 2013 isa betterapproach. The name shouldalsobe unique. If there are multiple IllegalDumpingPolicydocsfor1-7566, then anotherbitof data (that’smore likelytobe unique) shouldbe addedtothe name to helpdifferentiate betweenthe documents. Establisha common naming conventionelements. Thispractice stronglycomplimentsthe intuitivepracticesmentionedabove. Byestablishingkeynaming conventionsforadocument,usersare able toaccuratelyguessa document'sname evenif they don't knowit forcertain, plushelptoensure uniformity. Thispractice will listsome commonelementsof a namingconvention. 1-7566 Illegal DumpingMay3 2013 Number Name Date Elements: Type: What isthe key term(s) of the Document? Some examples - Well filesmayhave documents/folderslike 'Completions',Accountingmayhave 'AccountsReceivable',andHuman Resourcesmayhave 'BenefitsPackage'.
- 5. A namingconventiontype like 'OLDS-VNDR-PUR'couldrepresent3termsin priorityorder, joinedbya dash:Olds(area),VNDRforVendor,andPUR representingPurchase. Thisdocument name couldbe seenas lessintuitive,butwithacollectionthathasa large varietyof documents it maybe a goodsolution,one thatachievesthe varietyanddetailsneeded, andthe abbreviationskeeps the name fromgettingtoolong Staff doneedtoknow the abbreviations for thisto be effectivehowever. Date: Howwill the date be written? MM/DD/YYYY or DD/MM/YYYY? Keepinmindthat if either methodwasutilized,there isamarginof error. Is 05/03/2015 May 3rd or March 5th ? Ensure that the date format isclearlycommunicatedtoexistingandnew employees. The monthcould be a letterabbreviationinstead toavoidthisconfusion –Apr 5 2015 or perhapsApr/05/2015? Number:Numberingitemsisacommonnamingconvention. Surface filesmayuse S12345 for example,HRfilesmayuse the employeenumberinsteadof aname to increase privacy protection. Shouldthe numberzero-filled–forexample 00045? Zerofillingtoasetnumberwill permitapplications like windows tosortthe name by numberproperly,butsome applications may dropthe leadingzeroswhenthe metadataisexported. Be aware of the riskand preventit before itoccurs. Orderthe elements Place the mostimportantelementsfirstinthe namingconvention. Torepeatthe lastexample,the policyname wasdeterminedtobe more importantthanthe document's date so itappearsbefore it, but the policynumberisthe mostimportantelement,sositsfirst. Elementseparators Shouldthe elementsbe separatedbyaspace,data,underscore? There are pros / consfor each method. Some are cleaner(space),butmaynotsearch as easilyasdata separatedbyan underscore (for example) witholderdatabases. Inthis example:'OLDS-VNDR-PUR',usingadash separatorsuggests these three abbreviationsare partof the whole documentnumber. Some sites/userbestpractice preferencesmaychoose one overanotherforvariousreasons. Leveragingthe previous example, if the database holdingthe documents hadissuessearchingforwords whenseparatedbya space perhaps usinganunderscore insteadisabettersolution. Visuallyitgivesthe same effect,butthe wordsaren'tseparate. Wouldhavinga space separatorbe an issue withyour database? Stop the 'Silo' thinking. Some documentsbynecessityneedtobe sharedbetweenmultiplegroups. Forexample, overthe lifeof a well,the well file wouldbe neededbythe drillinggroup,the completionsgroup, reclamationand remediation, possiblyjointventure/interest, Healthsafetyandenvironment,Land,etc. If one departmentdecidedthatsince theyare the groupthat maintainsthe file collection duringthe completionsphase (forexample),they 'own'the records withfinal sayonhow the documentsare
- 6. organizedandstored,andthe chosensolution doesn'ttake the othergroupsneedsintoaccount, essentiallycreatingadata silothatother groupswouldhave difficultyfinding. Anyfolderstructuresordocumentnamingconventionsneedtobe designedwithALLstakeholders' needsinmind. Documentandfoldernamingneedstobe intuitivetoall stakeholders,otherwise itwill fail at some point. Use teamwork to developand establishthe structures / naming conventions. To ensure a folderstructure ordocumentnamingconventioncapturessufficientinformation,itisa goodideato put togetherateam of stakeholdersandcollaborateonthe design. A groupdesigned solutionismore likelytohave all the perspectivescoveredas well asget'buy-in'fromthe userswhowill be usingthe convention/structure. Supporting Best Practices Workingwithusersto developandimplementafolderstructure ordocumentnamingconventionisthe beginning,butwithoutefforttomaintainthe structure,docnamingconventionsmaystoppedbeing followed,wastingthe time andefforttosetitup. Communicate the naming convention or folderstructures. An established folderstructure and/ornamingconventionwill have novalue unlessit'seffectively communicatedtothe users. Userscannot follow namingconventionsif theydonotknow whatthey are. Newemployeesalsoneedtobe educatedonthe structure andconventionstohelpensure a smoothtransitionintotheirnewjoborrole andto continue followingthe standards. Includea statementthatall staff membersare expectedtofollowsthe namingconvention,structure design,etc. Audit to ensure compliance. Staff are expectedtobe professionalandfollow establishedpractices. However, thatunfortunately doesn'talwayshappen. Some will simplynotwanttofollow the namingconventionsorstructuresand do whattheywish. Or perhapssomeone has misinterpretedthe namingconventionandnamed documentsincorrectly? Auditingandpursuing/enforcingthe correctionof errorsisimportant. Establishedconventionsprovide novalue if theyaren'tbeingfollowed. Glossary Metadata: selectword(s) thataccurately describe adocument’scontentsandare importantforclarity or as search terms.