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FDA Records Management Compliance (1)

Description: OES is responsible for maintaining a system of records on behalf of the Agency and the Commissioner in compliance with National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, and agency policies. OES will engage in the task of reconstructing the OES records management process to be in compliance with the Records Management System (RMS) guidelines in a joint effort with the FDA RMS to become the pilot for the overall agency-wide effort. The standardization of record-keeping processes will achieve more efficient operations in support of the overall FDA mission.

Accomplishment:

Phase 1: In completing Phase 1, specific categories on the OES Shared Drive were created. These drives assist OES in defining specific Congressional areas/topics addressed by our department. Documents have been migrated into the new structure so are no longer individually named folders. After testing other formats and applications OES decided to continue working with AIMS to archive existing and future documents for records management. OES trained staff to identify specific folders and to adapt to the new method of record management. Lastly, all data was converted over to the new folders and the new method was tested to ensure documents are able to be retrieved quickly.
Phase 2: In the beginning of Phase 2, OES became compliant with Records Management System (RMS) guidelines. The RMS team stepped in to audit records and gave OES an assessment of what coding would be needed to close out a document. OES identified most documents as Significant (Code: 8111) or Non-Significant (Code: 8112). Programming the retention codes onto the AIMS Correspondence Tracking System comprised the bulk of Phase 2. After that was tackled, OES gave its staff as well as most of the Center Executive Secretariat staff, a tutorial on how to differentiate the two codes. OES identified document types to ease the decision-making process when closing out a document in AIMS. With the completion of this FDA-TRACK key project, OES is now able to give assistance to FDA Centers on best practices to begin their records management migration.

Phase 1

Milestone Description	Milestone Date	Milestone Status	Milestone Completion Date
A. Identify major subject areas and review official documents (i.e., Congressional) to create specific category folders on the shared drive	10/31/2010	Completed	10/29/2010
B. Train staff on structuring current and future documents in folders and review former staff documents for disposition on shared drive	11/30/2010 (1/31/2011)	Completed	1/31/2011
C. Identify and test applications to use for new share drive record management system	11/30/2010 (1/31/2011)	Completed	1/31/2011
D. Train Staff on managing data in the major topic folders	1/31/2011	Completed	1/31/2011
E. Convert data to new application and conduct testing of data (i.e., quantitative reports)	3/31/2011 (4/30/2011)	Completed	4/30/2011

Phase 2

Milestone Description	Milestone Date	Milestone Status	Milestone Completion Date
A. Confirm OES record compliance to Record Management System (RMS) guidelines	12/31/2010 (7/15/2011)	Completed	7/15/2011
B. Audit data in OES records and complete appropriate reports	2/28/2011 (9/15/2011)	Completed	10/31/2011
C. Train OES Staff on RMS guidelines	4/30/2011 (9/15/2011)	Completed	11/21/2011
D. Complete self evaluation and lessons learned	5/31/2011 (9/15/2011)	Completed	12/15/2011
E. Complete pilot and present results to RMS	7/31/2011 (9/30/2011)	Completed	12/31/2011

Foot Notes

(1) The dates in italics under the milestone due dates are revised milestone due dates which had to be updated due to real-time delays. The milestone status reflects the revised due dates.

Key Projects Legend

Milestone Status	Definition
Not Yet Started	Work for specific milestone has not yet been started.
Completed	Milestone and/or overall project is completed.
On Track	Milestone - On track for completion by milestone deadline. Quarter status - Project is on track for completion based on overall milestone status.
On Hold	Milestone - On hold, but deadline for completion has not passed. Quarter status - Project is on hold, based on overall milestone status.
Delayed	Milestone - Delayed as it has not been completed and deadline has passed. Quarter status - Project is delayed based on overall milestone status.