How to use RKAT

Organisation details

This tool starts by asking some questions about your organisation. This is so PROV can publish deidentified reports showing results for sectors to assist you to compare yourself with similar organisations.

You will then be asked to select the type of assessment you want to undertake.

Deciding how to use the tool

The different aspects or areas you can choose to assess are:

whole organisation - for assessing the overall maturity of the organisation
strategic level - for assessing the high level strategic aspects such as governance and policy
business unit - for assessing the maturity of an individual section or area
system - for assessing an organisational system against recordkeeping requirements
digital transition - for assessing organisational progress towards transitioning to fully digital processes and practices.

The questions

The scope you select will determine the questions you get. The questions will be presented in groups that correspond to PROV's Recordkeeping Standards. Depending on the scope you have chosen, you may not get any questions from one or more of the Standards.

The Standard areas are:

Strategic Management
Operational Management
Create, Capture and Control
Storage
Access
Disposal

Delivering the questions in these groups is intended to allow you to focus on one dimension of record keeping at a time, rather than jumping back and forth between them.

For each question, choose the maturity statement that best describes your practice. They may not be a perfect reflection - just choose the statement that best fits.

You can choose a halfway point between two statements.

Choosing a maturity level implies the organisation has also achieved the lower levels.

The maturity levels are:

1/5

Ad hoc

No systematic or formal approach exists in relation to this component of recordkeeping activity. Processes and practices are fragmented or nonexistent. Where processes and practices exist they are applied in an ad-hoc manner.

2/5

Defined

Processes and practices are defined to varying degrees but are not applied consistently. Basic management controls and disciplines are in place.

3/5

Repeatable

Processes and practices are defined, documented, well understood and used consistently across the organisation.

4/5

Managed

Processes and practices are actively managed and routinely measured to ensure delivery of desired results.

5/5

Optimal

Processes and practices are continuously improved through innovation and organizational learning based on ongoing monitoring and review.

You should choose the level that best matches your performance. Half ratings are provided to allow you to indicate that, while you do not meet the higher level statement completely, you are meeting it in some respects.

Each question also has three text fields:

Explanation and justification (mandatory) - use this to explain why you have chosen a particular rating
Plans for action (mandatory) - use this to document what you are planning to do to improve
Notes (optional) - use this for any other information you would like to capture

You can move backwards and forwards through the assessment as much as you want before final submission.

You can save part way through and come back to it at a later time.

Your Progress

As you move through the assessment, there is a ‘Your Progress’ panel on the left that will show you how many questions there are for each Standard area. When you complete and save a question, the corresponding dash will turn yellow. You can click on a dash to be taken to the question it corresponds to.

Getting reports

Once you have submitted your assessment, you can generate a summary and/or full report. The summary report will give you an overview of the results and is designed to easily identify areas of concern and of high performance. The full report will also include your ratings and comments for each question. This will be a long document, and you may wish to copy and paste content for inclusion in your own custom reports.

If you wish to generate a report from an earlier assessment, but have lost access to it, contact PROV and we will generate it for you.

When a sufficient number of reports are available, PROV will publish deidentified reports for whole sector groups, so you can compare your results.