My previous post set up the first two components of Doculabs’ Discovery Readiness Program Framework – an approach for getting your organization ready for litigation and compliance discovery. This post, Introducing the Discovery Readiness Program: Part 2, addresses the rest of the Program, specifically the remaining four components of the framework.
3. Information Organization
This component of the Discovery Readiness Program addresses how information is organized. It includes:
• Content taxonomy or information hierarchy (including metadata index values)
• Records Retention Plan
• ESI-Repository Map
We find that many organizations have the second item on the list, the Records Retention Plan, but relatively few have either a taxonomy (to organize their information), or an ESI-Repository Map (to show where their electronically stored information, or ESI, is stored). A Records Retention Plan can be strengthened by undertaking the development of a taxonomy and by developing an ESI-Repository Map.
The taxonomy facilitates ESI discovery and management; it also facilitates the development and maintenance of an effective Records Retention Plan. A well-designed taxonomy is necessary for effective electronic discovery search and discovery readiness and can significantly reduce an organization’s requirements for electronic discovery search technology products and development.
The Records Retention Plan is also part of the Information Organization component of the Discovery Readiness Program. The plan addresses not only paper documents, but ESI — along with the particular metadata, confidentiality, and other issues associated with ESI. This Retention Plan is based (when possible) on the organization’s taxonomy and on the ESI-Repository Map (discussed below).
The third element, the ESI-Repository Map, is critical to the development and maintenance of Information Organization. To create this map, Doculabs conducts an inventory of the instances of an organization’s ESI – not just the types that are addressed in a taxonomy or retention plan. The inventory includes descriptions of the formats and other relevant characteristics of the ESI and notes the systems in which they reside. As part of this inventory, Doculabs also evaluates the value, risk, manageability, and required management capabilities for the various types of ESI and recommends improvements (e.g. whether to keep that type of ESI in place and manage it with the in-place system, or to move it to an external system).
This repository mapping helps to effectively fulfill the pre-trial conference requirements that are now part of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP). But more important, the repository mapping helps you to prioritize ESI and the systems that need improvement and to develop an effective roadmap for discovery readiness.
Make sure that your ESI map is informed by technical expertise and includes an evaluation of the organization’s content systems and repositories, as well as proactive recommendations to help improve your organization’s discovery readiness.
4. Process Design and Implementation
This component of the Discovery Readiness Program addresses the overall processes used to support discovery readiness and discovery response. These include the e-discovery process itself, as well as the overall records/information lifecycle management process.
A great starting point for evaluating and defining your discovery process is to map it against the industry-standard Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM; see http://edrm.net/). This model identifies the following stages for the discovery process: Identification, Collection, Preservation, Processing, Review, Analysis, Production, and Presentation.
The Information and Records Lifecycle Management process defines the upstream and downstream ESI lifecycle stages in which the discovery process resides. It typically includes the following stages: Ingestion, Indexing (Declaration and Classification), Access and Distribution, Retention, and Disposition. Lifecycle management is necessary for effective discovery readiness, in order to control litigation risks and costs.
5. Architecture and Technology
This component of the Discovery Readiness Program addresses the overall technologies that are used or can be leveraged for discovery readiness, as well as the architecture for how they fit together.
We recommend that organizations develop a functional architecture for electronic discovery and discovery readiness and, where relevant, that they integrate and coordinate that architecture with the architectures for records management, email management, and for broader ECM. This helps ensure that electronic discovery and discovery readiness become entrenched in an organization’s IT strategy, enabling the discovery program to leverage the organization’s technical resources and technologies. Developing the architecture required to effectively fulfill the Discovery Readiness Program requires not just technical expertise, but also records management and ECM expertise to provide a more comprehensive strategy for ESI.
Typically, the most appropriate capabilities for discovery and for pre-trigger ESI lifecycle management come from a mix of technologies, including not just electronic discovery specialist tools, but also infrastructure and ECM products. We see many organizations that procure an electronic discovery specialist tool without analyzing their current and desired future state, and without evaluating their existing technology portfolios. In many instances, the result is a wasted opportunity: The specialist tool wouldn’t be necessary if other actions were taken (e.g. consolidating repositories and enforcing policies – things which have to be done anyway). The limited resources could have been used instead to address those electronic discovery gaps that remain.
FYI I’ll go into greater detail on how to develop your E-discovery Technology Roadmap in a future post.
6. Communications and Training
This component of the Discovery Readiness Program addresses the mechanisms for educating the user community and improving compliance and adoption of the procedures and solutions that support discovery readiness. The Communications and Training component includes:
• Organizational readiness evaluation and monitoring
• Communication plan and program
• Training plan and program
Communications and training should socialize the Discovery Readiness Program and the rules, ensuring that the policies defined as part of the program continue to be effectively followed in practice. Training should differentiate between types of electronic discovery participants, including consumers, contributors, and coordinators – as well as subtypes within each of those categories.
The goal is to achieve high employee participation, along with high quality of participation. But practically speaking, it’s difficult to achieve both of these objectives from the beginning. So a best practice is to identify the high-frequency, high-risk, high-value areas within the organization, focusing communications and training on them and aiming for high participation in those areas. Then, as the program develops, participation and quality can be ramped up.
A Discovery Readiness Program is most effective when these communication and training activities are strategically integrated into the Discovery Readiness Program roadmap, and when those activities are sufficiently differentiated to address the specific information needs of the various participants in the discovery process. The result is higher participation – and higher quality participation.
What’s next? As I indicated above, in one of my next posts I’m going to talk about how to develop your E-discovery Technology Roadmap – i.e. what/when/how you should deploy e-discovery tools, ECM, RM, and email archiving.