NDSA:Audit and Certification: Understanding Options for Addressing Standards and Requirements

Title of Activity or Project

Audit and Certification: Understanding Options for Addressing Standards and Requirements

One Sentence Description:

With the release of ISO 16363 that specifies the requirements for the audit and certification of trustworthy digital repositories, the digital community would benefit from a review of current options for organizations to demonstrate comformance and from ongoing monitoring as options emerge and evolve.

Statement of the Problem and Goals for Addressing the Problem:

There is some level of confusion and apprehension about the options available to orgnaizations for addressing the requirements specified in the standards. This project woul raise awareness and assist organizatons in three ways:

Community context: consolidate the documentation of the development of audit and certification for digital preservation to share with the community then continue to share results of monitoring key developments and trends in audit and certification to raise awareness and build understanding

Implementation examples: capture examples of addressing current requirements for audit and certification to determine commonalities, share lessons learned, and contribute to shared practice

Review options: identify current repository audit options that organizations might consider (e.g., peer review audit, audit by service), document examples of the application of audit options with considerations for use in various contexts (e.g., type and size of organizations, desired outcomes), and monitor emerging options to maintain options list

Strategic Value of Activity:

Raise awareness about audit and certification
Improve understanding about options for addressing the requirements specified in ISO 16363
Encourage good practice by organizations by sharing implementation examples
Define guidance for peer review audit as one alternative foroganizations
Establish a means for monitoring emerging and evolving options

Required Resources:

Time of working group members
Information from about examples from implementers
Review of guidance by external reviewers
Opportunities to share information about activities

Roadmap:

What are the steps to take in order to accomplish this activity? Examples:

identify interested members
Hold conference calls
Document results: Establish Community Context page to capture community development activities; Document implementation examples; Identify options to review, define a profile for options, then document options
Invite NDSA member and broader community feedback
Revise and share results
Continue to maintain

Dissemination of Knowledge:

Publish summary of results on digitalpreservation.gov
Make results public
Write a blog post
Send announcements to listservs
Present at conferences that members are attending

Signifiers of Success and Outcomes:

Indicators of success include:

Public availability of resultsA report
An increase in substantive community discussion of audit and certification
Greater awareness (increased references) of standards and options for addressing