Sample Records Governance Plan

This governance plan establishes a unified, centrally administered approach to records management for Decker, Hubbard, and Brown. It defines a governance framework, accountability structure, and departmental governance that align content management with business requirements. A Content Committee sets the roadmap and vision, a Content Manager manages stakeholders and change, departmental Content Specialists train users and gather requirements, and the CIO provides architecture and long-term support. Monthly plan oversight by the Records Program Committee reviews system health and growth, updates a rolling five-year roadmap, and coordinates policies, standards, and plan revisions.

The document functions as a practical data governance policy and as a foundation for a data management plan or data management and sharing plan. It addresses topics of a DMS plan, such as types of data generated (structured master data and unstructured files), data type and data formats, data standards, metadata, naming conventions for files, versioning and version control, and policies for access and sharing. It identifies data repositories and systems (SharePoint, an ECM system, a legacy accounting application, and ServerA/ServerB) to guide data repository selection, archiving, and providing access, and storage backup and security.

Disaster recovery, service levels, upgrade schedules, and retention policy support data security, privacy, and confidentiality protections, and data preservation access timelines. Training guidelines, best practices, and a roles and responsibilities list reinforce consistent execution.

Compliance and re-use considerations include HIPAA/CIP/SOX, confidential data, agreements and restrictions, licensing and copyright, intellectual property, policies for re-use, and, when needed, restricted data use agreements, controlled access, embargo periods, and data submission and release expectations. Many organizations also designate a lead data steward reporting to a chief data officer or CIO, apply a maturity model to track progress, and use persistent unique identifiers so content is findable and identifiable. Routine assessment of data management and sharing plans, revising plans, and light peer review improve oversight of data management and data access and reuse.

Use cases include departmental-level records for Finance, HR, Legal, and Facilities; imaged master records for asset management; and research or public-sector programs where application instructions require example DMS plans, institutional certification, informed consent via an institutional review board, budgeting for data management and budget justification, and format attachments such as a PDF attachment.

Proposal Kit can streamline authoring and updates with a data governance plan template, document assembly for governance artifacts and training materials, automated line-item quoting for implementation budgets, an AI Writer to build supporting documents, and an extensive template library that keeps the program organized and easy to maintain.

Beyond establishing committees and systems, the plan benefits from clearly defined roles and plan oversight. Many firms appoint a lead data steward to manage data governance across the departmental level, maintaining contextual details for each content type and coordinating assessments of plans on a recurring cadence, such as a biennial data governance plan refresh. Hosting a resource library on an internal hub (for example, a DRMC SharePoint) helps teams access a RIMS template, a sample RM plan, sample plans, tools, software, and code, and training materials. This structure supports mandatory standards, SOX/csox obligations, and compliance support while improving access, distribution, or reuse through documented data formats, metadata, and naming conventions.

Organizations with research or regulated data can extend the framework to cover data sharing rules, data licensing, embargo period settings, and any restricted data use agreement. When handling human genomic data, non-human genomic data, or genomic summary results, governance should reflect the genomic data sharing policy, identify a repository acceptable under GDS, and require a persistent unique identifier or persistent identifier for datasets. Policies should define privacy protections, ethical and privacy issues, access sharing and privacy controls, controlled access, and the data submission and release expectations at the time of publication and across the performance period.

Referencing agency sections (e.g., HBP Part 20 4 3) and state agency compliance support tools helps align internal policy with external requirements.

Teams can draw on external guidance and review services to strengthen oversight of data management. Common aids include DMPTool, Harvard policies for responsible data management, the Countway Library data management plan review service, university-specific guidance, and an application guide for proposal format. Budgeting rigor matters; tie data stewardship tasks to an application budget and enable regular assessment of plans to guide revisions.

Proposal Kit can expedite these deliverables by assembling a data governance plan template with roles, repository decisions, and policy sections, generating proposal documents and PDF attachments, integrating sample plans, and producing automated line-item quoting for the application budget. Its AI Writer can help write contextual details and related sections, while the template library supports consistent updates alongside internal workshops and webinars.

Further strengthening this governance model means operationalizing it with measurable plan oversight. Establish clear KPIs for adoption, data quality, storage growth, and time-to-retrieve records. Use a maturity model to score departments on compliance with mandatory standards, retention policy, naming conventions for files, version control, data formats, metadata, and privacy protections. A lead data steward and the chief data officer can run a lightweight peer review and assessment of plans each quarter, then roll findings into biennial data governance plan updates and targeted training.

Define lifecycle controls that start at capture: classify types of data and confidential data; assign a persistent unique identifier or persistent identifier; apply metadata, licensing or copyright terms, and agreements and restrictions. Build a repository selection checklist for each data repository that weighs controlled access, storage backup and security, archiving and providing access, data preservation access timelines, support for embargo period and data licensing, and whether the repository is acceptable under GDS. Align archive file formats and imaged master records with the File Plan and retention schedules. Include disaster recovery expectations and SLAs, and schedule upgrades and hotfixes for systems like SharePoint, ECM, and ServerA/ServerB.

For research and regulated use cases, spell out access sharing and privacy rules at the time of publication and across the performance period, including institutional certification, ethical and privacy issues, restricted data use agreement language, and data submission and release expectations. When human genomic data, non-human genomic data, or genomic summary results are involved, they should reflect the genomic data sharing policy requirements. Reference CSOX and HIPAA where applicable, and cite application instructions, application guide, and format attachments such as a PDF attachment.

External aids like DMPTool, Harvard policies for responsible data management, the Countway Library data management plan review service, university-specific guidance, state agency compliance support tools, and sample plans help validate the approach. Maintain a resource library on DRMC SharePoint with a RIMS template, sample RM plan, tools, software, and code, and workshops and webinars.

Proposal Kit can help teams assemble a cohesive package-governance framework, roles, RACI-like sections, repository decisions, and budget justification, using a plan template and document assembly. Its AI Writer and template library accelerate consistent updates and supporting narratives, while automated line-item quoting helps produce an application budget for governance and data management activities.

How do you write a Sample Records Governance Plan document?

Governance Plan

The Governance Plan will serve to provide a unified, centrally administered approach to records management within Decker, Hubbard and Brown. Why we need a governance plan. The Governance Plan is the road map for the overarching content environment, architecture, system development, process, policy and decisions for the Records Management Program. This plan also identifies the area of ownership for Decker, Hubbard and Brown's information management group and identifies who is responsible for which areas of the Records Management Program.

The Governance Plan sets the regulations and rules for the use of records and system environments so that the content to be managed is sustainable and grows in a consistent manner that is in line with Decker, Hubbard and Brown's goals and business requirements.

Governance Program Goals

The Decker, Hubbard and Brown governance plan outlines the content types that will be governed and the organization of the governance model. The plan will detail who will govern what and how the content will be governed.

Governance Structure

The Content Committee develops the roadmap and vision for the content management program and insures that the project timelines are socialized and delivered to the organization. The Content Manager insures the stakeholder expectations are managed and communicates any issues and change requirements. The departmental Content Specialist will train other personnel on asset management and provide requirements to business analyst and are the Go-To leads for business groups.

The CIO is responsible for the architecture and long term support for the content management system.

Records Program Committee

Reference Program RACI for detailed roles and responsibilities. The Content Governance Committee will meet on a monthly basis to review system health and growth rates to track trends and update the roadmap for current and future needs. The roadmap will cover a 5 year rolling plan to include business process workflow and automation to increase adaption of the content management program. Areas governed by the Records Program Item Description Content Stores ServerA, ServerB Files and content on servers.

Systems SharePoint, ECM System, and legacy accounting system Applications that generate content.

Departments

• Administration
• Asset and Facility Management
• Financial Management
• Human Resources Management
• Information Management
• Legal Records
• Professional Services

Sales and Marketing Management Content types to be governed by department. Reference the File Plan for all content types for each department. Records Related Standards Standard Name Documentation Location IT. Server capacity and storage requirements.

Supported OS. Supported browsers ServerA Content. Supported file types. Supported applications ServerA Business.

Content storage locations by department ServerA Regulatory. HIPPA, CIP, and SOX ServerB. All Content-Related Policies and Procedures Policy Name Policy Location Process for developing policies and procedures RACI. Road Map ServerA Communication plan.

Stakeholder Management plan. Stakeholder Communication Log ServerA Change management. Change Requests ServerA Internal and external content. Content developed by 3rd parties.

Content we control ServerA Structured and unstructured content. Structured content (Master Data). Unstructured content such as invoices or project files, and content that is not managed in a database.

ServerA

Records Training Guidelines and Materials Training Documents Document Location Policies and procedures. Content Management Best Practices. Retention Schedules ServerA Systems and applications use manual.

Administrator Manual ServerB Content-specific material. Archive File Formats ServerB. Records Maintenance Infrastructure Documents Document Location SLA.

Disaster Recovery. Upgrade/hotfix Schedules. The development of the Records Policy and procedures and the enforcement of standards should be reviewed, managed and updated by the governance committee as outlined above.