Alfresco Test Day 1 - Implement File Plans

This is day one of a ten day trial of Alfresco RM, the next step to a paperless office by allowing you to file electronic records so that your electronic record is authentic and defensible. Today I am testing the "Implement File Plans" feature which should allow me to create a file plan, edit, sort and view. With each test I will declare a pass or fail, recommendations for the developers, RM community and business user, and lessons learned along the way.

• In two clicks from the Alfresco cloud, I am at the Records Management Site.
• Note the Wiki and File Plan options from the banner.
• The Wiki contains some tutorials; a good start for new users.
• I quickly built a couple series, categories, and folders. I uploaded documents in to a couple folders with little difficulty (I received one error message that an entry had failed, but when I tried again it succeeded).
• I uploaded seventeen documents of various types (jpg. pdf, xls) all at once. It took a few minutes in the cloud, but it also tracked my progress by green bar.
• I also edited category names by changing the metadata.

I rate this test as a PASS

Records Manager

New Series - show up in the left Navigation pane after refreshing the screen (F5).

• Add first your Series, then Category then Folder.
• If you are using a functional file plan for your organization, then Series would relate to Function, Category to Sub-Function, and Folder to Activity.
• If you are using a block-numeric subject classification system, then Series would relate to Block, Category to Primary, and Folder to Secondary.
• Records can then be imported in to the folders you have made. This is the first level where documents can be added.
• Schedule information is added at the Category level.
• The term "Expression" is referring to a scheduling function, the number of days/months/years after an event when the records reach final disposition action.
• All mandatory fields are starred (*). Alfresco won't let you move on from an entry window until all mandatories are completed. (good).
• The system will not allow a Category to be saved with a review period of "Not Set", and if "None" is selected, it will not allow the expression field to be completed. (good).

Business User

• Before you can upload documents, the File Plan Series, Categories, and Folders must first be set up.
• You may or may not be granted permission to edit these, so see someone with those permissions (Out of the box, this would likely be the Administrator, Records Manager, and Power User)?
• Documents are added to folders.

Developer
Is there a way for a complete file manual to be imported? I suspect this may be available in the full version -  not in the cloud - as there are greyed out buttons on the RM site. I expect an import document would need to be in a specific format (i.e. tab delimited) with a one-to-one relationship to all mandatory fields. It looks like there would need to be separate imports for Series, Category, and Folder.

Notes:

This test checked compliance to DOD 5015.2 requirements C.2.1.1.1 to C.2.2.1.6 and MoReq 3.1.4