Electronic Document Resource Management Systems (EDRMS) can be an asset for records management in an organization. However, there needs to be an information architecture (IA) to support it. “IA is the art and science of structuring and organizing information systems to help people achieve their goals (Rascao, 2016)”. To serve that purpose, IA comprises the integration of three aspects: the context (the mandate and objectives of the organization), the content (the functions and processes of the organization) and the users (understanding their information needs and behaviours). These three elements are assessed through a functional analysis which is the analysis of the main functions of the organization that produce records and the units that make up each of these functions (called processes). 

I had the opportunity to do a functional analysis of Amnesty International Canada (AIC) for my records and archives management class’s final assignment. My task in this group project was to identify the main functions of AIC, the processes that derive from them, the possible records that are produced and make recommendations for the IA. I learned how to do a functional analysis but also how to determine the importance of each process or function within the organization and to distinguish the relevant records from the irrelevant ones generated within each function. By highlighting the important processes within the organization and the records they produce, I was able to use them as facets in the system’s IA to describe the information and make it easily retrievable. This ensures that users can make sense of the records management system because it aligns with the processes, functions and mandate of the organization all while still integrating the content and context of the organization through the IA.  It, therefore, lays the foundation for an efficient records management system.