CHAPTER 3

Records Management

3.1 Introduction

This chapter covers the management and preservation of digital records related to 3D models and digital quality artifacts in the design phase. It introduces the international standard context for digital records management and discusses the management of digital records through versioning and traceability, accessibility, retention, preservation, data rights, and cybersecurity as well as the creation of digital quality artifacts.

3.1.1 ISO 15489 Standard for Records Management

ISO 15489-1:2016 defines concepts and principles for information and documentation records management. It addresses records, metadata for records and records systems, policies and assigned responsibilities supporting effective records management, records controls, and analyzing the business context to identify records requirements. ISO 15489-1:2016 is a useful reference for agencies establishing records management controls, policies, and responsibilities for digital quality artifacts and 3D models used as part of the letting documents. It is also a helpful resource for analyzing changing business contexts as an agency implements digital project delivery.

Agencies are continuing to refine their digital project delivery process and the format of digital documents used to communicate design intent at interim design milestones as well as in permit applications and letting documents. Adopting new digital document formats may involve switching to new design authoring and design review software and new types of quality artifacts. As this business context changes, records management protocols should be updated. Other important parts of an agency’s business context are its policies and legal requirements for retaining digital documents and managing records.

Maintaining robust digital records of 3D models and quality artifacts produced during the design phase affects the following:

• Efficiency of organizational processes.
  • – Digital media increases efficiency by letting users quickly locate records through metadata and location-based or advanced keyword searches.
• Optimization of decision-making.
  • – Using archived data to support asset management planning decisions.
• Improved transparency and accountability for affected stakeholders.
• Protection and support in litigation.
  • – Being able to easily locate records is a key concern of legal experts in transportation.
• Better integration of design models on future projects, including short-term and long-term operational decision-making.

3.1.2 BIM Records Management According to ISO 19650

ISO 19650 standards outline the process for approval of and records management protocols needed for BIM. This series defines a common data environment (CDE) as both a solution for storing project data and processes for managing the data. Throughout the design process, information is defined and placed into containers (e.g., individual models or files), which are stored in the CDE. ISO 19650-1 defines the concepts and principles of a CDE. ISO 19650-2 assigns responsibility for establishing and managing the official project CDE to the appointed party—in this case, the lead designer. ISO 19650-4 establishes responsibilities for information exchanged between parties.

ISO 19650 prescribes file naming conventions and metadata to identify containers and the status of the information within them. Information containers are defined based on their current state and associated metadata. Possible states include work in progress, shared, or published. Moving information from one state to the next as part of a CDE collaborative workflow involves verifying and validating information. An archived state provides the audit trail of development and validation of the information containers.

3.2 Management of Digital Records

Per ISO 19650, a CDE encompasses both a managed file-sharing environment and the processes that govern collaboration within the environment. For decades, agencies have used digital design development tools, and many have implemented CDE solutions to manage CADD files during the design process. However, when the final design deliverables used for letting and construction were paper or PDF plans, there was no need to maintain access to the digital design models beyond the letting or final construction closeout. This section discusses aspects of digital records management related to digital quality artifacts and 3D models that are part of the media used for construction (e.g., preservation, versioning and traceability, accessibility, retention, licensing, and cybersecurity).

3.2.1 Preservation

Digital preservation strategies, along with the processes and tools to implement such strategies, are designed to protect the long-term viability of digital materials. An effective digital preservation strategy accounts for and mitigates the impact of multiple threats that could compromise the accessibility and usability of digital materials over time. While agencies typically have existing policies for records retention periods, such policies may need to be amended to ensure that information stored in 3D models and other digital formats remains accessible over the full retention period.

The Simple Property-Oriented Threat (SPOT) Model is a risk assessment model that is flexible in scope and applicable across a variety of repositories. It defines six essential properties of successful digital preservation and identifies several potential threats that would seriously diminish a repository’s ability to maintain these properties. Figure 6 illustrates the six properties:

• Availability: A digital object is available for long-term use.
• Identity: A digital object is referenceable and can be distinguished from other objects in a group, allowing the object to be discovered and retrieved.
• Persistence: The bit sequences that comprise a digital object continue to exist in a useable state and are retrievable or can be processed from the medium on which they are stored.
• Renderability: A digital object can retain the object’s significant characteristics while it is used.

• Understandability: Sufficient supplementary information is associated with archived digital content for the content to be appropriately interpreted and understood by its intended users.
• Authenticity: A digital object is what it purports to be.

Metadata and proper records management of contextual information—like standards for digital data—are essential to preserving the identity and understandability of digital records. Existing policies for digital records management may address needs related to accessibility and authenticity. Agencies need to pay careful attention to the persistence, renderability, and understandability of digital records over the full data-retention life cycle. This means planning for the short life cycle of proprietary software and file formats and choosing durable archival formats.

If a 3D model is archived in a proprietary format, an agency may not have access to the specific version of the proprietary software needed to properly render information in the file without it being corrupted. Currently, the main challenge is finding a way to open older file formats, even as read-only. Open data standards and file types may someday alleviate this issue, but it is still important to implement proper records management.

Several items are needed to properly interpret the content of a 3D model in a proprietary format:

• 3D model–development standards,
• Standards for naming files and objects,
• Information on how a federated model is constructed, and
• Resource files that form part of a software configuration.

3.2.2 Versioning and Traceability

On physical and PDF plan sets, versioning and traceability were accomplished using a title block that lists attributes such as project number, sheet number, date, designer, drafter, checker, and version number. For records that require review, traceability of approvals can be documented through a combination of electronically verified signatures or initials. Quality artifacts for paper or PDF documents have similar attributes, often in a title block at the top of the first page. These attributes can be developed into a property set, such as the review documentation property set in Appendix C, and appended to digital files as metadata.

While metadata is a convenient way to manage versioning and traceability, it has many other functions as well. Metadata can include property sets with information related to technical, governance, operation, collaboration, quality, and usage of data in models or files.

Metadata can help users reconstruct federated models; interpret their contents; locate important contextual information, like object naming conventions; and search for information.

Types of Metadata with Examples

	Technical: coordinate systems and datums, schema, data type.
	Governance: owner, classification.
	Operation: dependencies (e.g., reference files).
	Collaboration: licensing.
	Quality: designer, checker, QA reviewer. (See Appendix C for additional property sets.)
	Usage: purpose (e.g., milestone), associated standards (e.g., model development, CADD, LOIN).

For example, a designer would be able to search for all files associated with specific geographic coordinates and find all historical records for that location.

An agency’s records management policy would likely need to specify that versions of each discipline-specific model and associated quality artifacts from each milestone review should be retained. Agencies would also need to store historical versions of the associated standards, such as CADD, model development, and LOIN standards, so that a model’s content can be interpreted in the future. This practice is similar to how agencies store historical copies of construction specifications.

ISO 19650-2 provides a workflow standard for storing files in a CDE with a managed process for version control and a managed collaboration process for design teams.

3.2.3 Accessibility

Accessibility refers to how easily users can retrieve information stored in a file or model. Factors that affect accessibility include whether a file format can only be opened with specialty software and the number of people within an agency who have skill sets necessary to navigate and interpret a file or model. Documents such as PDFs, spreadsheets, and word processing files are considered universally accessible on both workstations and mobile devices.

Other digital formats are less accessible if they can only be opened with specialty software or if stakeholders need specialized training or competencies to access and interpret the files and models. The more sophisticated a model or prerequisite software is, the less accessible information is to reviewers and other stakeholders, such as permitting agency staff, lawyers, municipalities, and utility companies. Although the software used to view 3D models is often unfamiliar

A checklist is one example of a document-based quality artifact. Checklists are robust quality artifacts because they are standardized, they record both the occurrence and details of the check, and they are typically durable, accessible, and auditable. A checklist could easily be digitized as a fillable PDF form. However, a checklist does not provide a complete record of a check because it usually does not include a record of the outcome of checks and any markups used to communicate feedback and suggested revisions to the designer. A checklist is traditionally accompanied by a marked-up set of plans to form the complete record of a check.

A report is another approach to recording the outcomes of a check. The checker can capture screenshots and make narrative comments for the designer, which the back checker can augment. The revisor or person verifying the revisions can insert new screenshots showing how an issue was resolved. The strengths of this approach are the format’s durability, accessibility, and auditability. Drawbacks include the lack of standardization and difficulty correlating a screenshot with the 3D model. Unless the checker creates saved views in the design model, the back checker and revisor may struggle to recreate issues highlighted in the design model.

Reports can also be generated by design software. These typically document the input values, calculated values, and other assumptions. For example, roadway design software may export alignment geometry, including superelevation, and report the superelevation table used in calculations. These types of reports have the benefit of being easier to standardize and customize within off-the-shelf software. If an agency leverages custom reports, they should be verified prior to being adopted as the agency’s standard report layout. Reports also document the use of process control to create compliant designs.

Another document-based tool for recording the checking process is a Model Element Table (MET). This is a spreadsheet that lists an organized inventory of model elements in the rows. The columns can be used flexibly. For example, they could record—element group by element group—the person responsible for an action (i.e., check, back check, revision, or verification), the date an action occurred, and where recorded outcomes are located (e.g., a link to a report). Key strengths of using a MET are that it breaks down a model into distinct design elements to ensure that each element is checked, and the format is durable, accessible, and auditable. The weaknesses are that it does not record how the check occurred, what was examined, or the outcome of the check.

3.3.2 2D Plan–Based Quality Artifacts

Digital 2D plan–based artifacts include PDF plans, GIS datasets, and CADD files. These formats can be configured to function like “digital paper,” replicating existing paper-based processes for reviews and quality artifacts. GIS is growing in popularity as a medium for accessing design data in the field. GIS datasets have a 2D vector component (i.e., a point, a line, or a polygon—the latter two composed of straight-line segments) that can be attached to a data table. The primary benefit of 2D documents is that the design is presented spatially and in a familiar view. There may be drawbacks in terms of accessibility, durability, accuracy, and auditability of the data in digital 2D documents.

PDF plans are the simplest form of digital 2D documents to implement because existing paper-based checking protocols can be replicated easily. The drawback is that the designer still needs to implement the plans production process. The benefits are that the format is durable, accessible, and auditable. Some agencies are piloting a process where they forego cutting plan sheets and print the whole project at a regular scale on a roll plot. When printing from CADD to PDF as a vector format, users can pan and zoom, read lines and text clearly, and turn content on and off using the layer feature. Large projects may need to be broken down into a few “sheets,” but it would still significantly cut down the plan production process. Another benefit is the use