Crafting a File Management Plan

As many of us are working on our file management plans for the migration from COLLAB to the Cloud, ITS has been having conversations with departments and a few themes have emerged. Overall, the simpler the initial plan, the easier it will be for the department to follow it. Of course, every department’s needs vary and not all of these ideas will apply to your situation, but below are tips that may help you as you develop your plan.

Identify where to store documents

ITS pulled together a list of key features unique to Drive and Dropbox. In general, departments or individuals who do a lot of real-time collaborative editing tend to do that work in Google Drive; departments and large data researchers might use Dropbox for storing large files and Microsoft Office documents. Our biggest recommendation is to choose the platform(s) that people in your department will be comfortable using. The platforms are similar and becoming more and more similar over time, so departmental preference is an important factor. Within each platform, here are additional factors that departments may want to consider for specific types of files:

  • Security: Most departments are choosing different storage areas for high, medium, and low risk documents. Low to medium risk documents are generally stored in Drive or Dropbox; and high risk documents that contain things like Personally Identifiable Information (PII) are generally stored in Onbase or the Protected Drive

  • In-process vs final version: Some departments prefer to work with in-process files in one space and “final” versions in another. For example, documents related to job search logistics live in Drive and are moved to Dropbox once the search is complete.

    Identify how to share documents

    • Who do we share with: public; Carleton-only; department-only; students; specific people; self only. 

    • How much access do we give the people we share with: edit, view, or comment. 

    • Do the right people have the right access without oversharing? 

      Identify naming conventions for folders and files

      Since files can now be found or shared even outside of the context of their original folders, file naming has become even more important than it once was. Several departments have decided on consistent ways that they will name shared files and folders so that they can be easily found and understood by anyone who needs them. Key considerations include:

      • Whether to include dates in file and folder names, and if so in what format: some groups name meeting notes files starting with the meeting dates to help organize files by date. This group also includes the name of the group that held the meeting (i.e.YYYY-MM-DD[GroupName]Notes.pdf).

      • What order name elements should take (Date first? Committee name first? Document title first?): For example, one group decided to append a prefix with parent folder abbreviations to all subfolders (i.e,DEVS_ARG2016 or CFR_Reports2017).

      • Whether to include the name of the department or sub-group in all files/folders

      Student Worker Access

      Several departments have decided to centralize their student worker files in Dropbox or Drive by having the admin create and maintain a folder into which students add files they create or work on. The admins are the owners of the folder and ask student workers to reassign ownership to them either at the end of their work stint or immediately upon adding the document to the folder.

      File Retention Policy

        It's a good idea to reference the college Records Retention Plan to help identify your area’s file retention plan.  

        Want to see examples of fully featured file management plans?

        The following departments have graciously shared their plans. These plans are continually evolving, but here’s what they looked like in early 2017:

        Your department’s file management plans will be key resources for ongoing documentation and collaboration in your departments, and your File Management Steward is the central hub for the creation and maintenance of this plan. Best practices are emerging as we all become familiar with these tools. Have a tip? Share it!