1. Folder Structure and Document Naming Convention Best Practices
Introduction
Many RecordsManagement (RM) or Enterprise ContentManagement(ECM) groupsworkto develop
and implementdocumentmanagementbestpracticesandstandardswithintheir organizations,toassist
withefficientandeffectivemanagementof documentsandrecords.
However,whilestandardslikeISO15489, ARMA's GARPprinciples,etc. provideguidelinesof what
composesa gooddocumentmanagement program,theydonotgive specificexamplesof exactly how to
implementthese principles. The challengeliesindeterminingjustthat: designingandimplementing
foundational partstosupportan ECMprogram while maintainingorimproving staff'sabilitytofind
documents.
In RM programs,'big'subjectssuchas documentlifecycle/ destruction,Retentionandclassification
schedulesgetalotof attention. Aswell theyshould,beingcritical aspectsof recordsmanagement;but
equallyasimportant (if notmore) isusersbeingable to find theirdataeasilyandeffectively.
Thisdocumentgivesseveral scenariostoencourage thinkingaboutdifferingperspectivesand
preferencesbyusers. Hopefullytheywill facilitate staff /departmentdiscussionswhenitcomesto
creatingsuitable documentnamingconventions. Ensuringastructure anddocumentnaming
convention works involvesconsiderationoncurrentandfuture needs,andthinkingaboutthese
scenarioswill helpavoidcommonpitfallswhencreatingconventionsandstructures.
The primarygoal of thisdocumentisto helpdefine /establishinformationsome governance best
practiceswithinyourdepartmentororganization. Withmany ideas, suggestions,concepts,etc.
surroundingthis subject,thisdocumentdoesnotcoverall the aspects. Also donot take these as
definitivepractices,but as a directiononthe subject. Metadatabeyondfolderanddocumentnames will
not be coveredinthisdocument,butsome of the conceptswouldalsoapply.
Best Practices
These bestpracticeswill have rulesandexamplestakenfromthe pointof view of usersnavigatingto
documents,whetherthe foldersare ina database or on a shareddrive.
Folderpath ‘depth’:limit to 3 levelsdeepfora collectionor department documents.
An example of acollectionmightbe Surface files. Departmentdocumentscouldbe theirinternal
meetingminutes,projectdocuments,drafts,collaborationdocuments,etc.
It’simportantto note that insome casesthiscan be challenging,due to the quantityand/orvarietyof
documents. Askyourself:
“If thisfolderwill onlycontainasmall numberof documents,isitnecessary?”
“Couldthe documentname have the foldername addedtoit,removingthe needforthisfolder?”

2. “Is breakingthese documentsupfurtherwiththisfolder necessaryorimportant”
“Is thisgoodmetadata?”
PoorStructure example:
VendorData
A
Aboline Diagnostics
B
BagelsR Us
Bernie’sVetservice
C
CountingCars Inc.
In thisexample,there are onlyafewvendordocuments,andthe numberof vendordocs isgoingto
remainsmall foryearsto come. Segregatingthemintofoldersdoesn’tofferadditional value. Having
‘letter’foldersisawastedlayerof foldersthatusershave tonavigate thoughto getto the documents
theyneed. Aslongas the applicationorsharedfoldersortsthe documentsinalphabetical order,it
servesthatpurpose. Itis a commonpitfall tocreate foldersforpotential futureneeds,asmanywill
have fewdocumentsorbe emptyforyears afterwards. Expandafolderstructure when it'sneeded.
BetterStructure Example:
VendorData
Aboline Diagnostics
BagelsR Us
Bernie’sVetservice
CountingCars Inc.
Oppositely, howmanydocumentsperfolderistoomany? If there were x documentsinthisfolder,
organizedalphabetically,wouldthatbe toomanydocumentsforone folder? Canusersstill easilyfind
documentsbysimplyscrollingdownthe foldercontentswhenthereare 100, 500, 1000 docs?
Answeringthisquestionisagreatway to determinewhen new folder(s) shouldbe createdtobreakthe
documentsupfurther.
For each Folderlevel, narrowthe scope.
The 1st
foldershouldhave the broadest scope inthe foldername.Foldersinsidethe 1st
folder(2nd
level)
shouldhave more focusinthe foldername,etc. Thispractice in particularsounds logical,butthe
challenge ariseswhendifferent perspectivesare taken intoaccountas differentpeoplemaythink
'logical'differently. Lookatthiswell file folderstructure example:
Well files
Alberta
W3
W4

3. BritishColumbia
Saskatchewan
Meridians
W1
W2
W3
W4
In the above example, thisBroad-Narrow practice hasbeenappliedcorrectly,butW3 & W4 are foundin
twodifferentspots.
Joe may thinkaboutwell filesbyProvince before he thinksaboutthembymeridian,andSallymaythink
aboutit froma meridianpointof view. If Joe didn'treadall the optionsavailabletohimandsimply
navigatedintothe 'Alberta'Folder,he eitherwouldn't findwhathe waslookingforor he may add new
documentsthatSallywouldn'tfind,asshe chose the meridianfolderoptionandlookedthere. Thiscan
leadto documentsnotbeingfound,orthe same document beingstored inmultiplelocations - which
one isbeingkeptupto date?
The larger the folderstructure ornumberof usersusingit,the greaterthe chancesof duplicate folders
appearingindifferentplacesbecomes. How can thisbe prevented?
Once the folderstructure is established,lockit down!
A commonoccurrence aftera structure has beendesignedand implementedisunplanned/
unwarrantedfoldergrowth.
Aftertakingtime todevelopandestablishafolderstructure,the bestwaytokeepitfrom growing
unmanaged isto limitthe numberof staff whowill maintainandexpandthe folderstructure. Inthe
previousexample,if Joe decidedthe well filesshouldbe organizedby Province andwaspermittedto
add itintothe structure,he may create the AlbertaFolderhimself;increasingthe potential for
documentstobe placedinthe wrongplace.
Once the structure isplanned,developamanageable(ie:keepitsimple) permissionsmodeltomaintain
whocan addfoldersandwhere. Thisshouldremove the potentialof unwantedstructure growth. Of
course,folderstructuresdoneedtogrow and change overtime,soappointstructure 'Manager(s)'
withinthe group to determineif astructure needstogrow and acts accordingly. This person(s) should
understandthe structure designandhave the authoritytosay'No' to requeststhatdon't fitintothe
structure design /intention. Give the teamthatusesthe folderstructure the abilitytobe held
accountable forit,but wisely.
Ensure the Folderor Document name is intuitive.
To helpexplainthisconcept,hereisanexample where the same policy documenthastwodifferent
names. The conceptsmentionedhere couldbe appliedtofoldersaswell,butthis example will use
documentnamingconventions.

4. 1-7566 05/03/2013
1-7566 Illegal DumpingMay3 2013
Namingdocumentsbypolicynumberonlyisagoodway to keepa documentname shorterandunique,
but itonlyworkswhenALL usersknowthe procedure numbersandsearchbythem. If someone was
lookingforthe Illegal Dumpingpolicybutdidn'tknow the policynumber,it'sunlikely they wouldfind
the documentquickly bybrowsing.
A commonpitfall iswhendocumentsare storedina database andthe documentnamingconventions
excludeimportantmetadatainthe documentname and usersexpect the database'ssearchengine to
locate the document. Trustinginthe searchengine iscertainlyeasierthanestablishingandapplyingan
intuitive documentnamingconvention. But,whathappensif the searchengine isdown,auserdoesn't
like / trust the searchtool, typosin the documentname, etc? What if searchingby'Illegal Dumping'
produced'google'results, toomanyforstaff to quicklydetermine whichresultiswhattheywant? What
if the search engine doesn’tworkverywell?
Do not allowdatabase searchenginestobe acrutch for poor documentnamingconventions. Instead,
searchenginesshould complementthe folderstructure and/ordocumentnamingconventions. Not
only wouldthisofferusersoptions onhow theysearch /browse fordocuments basedontheirpersonal
preference,itoffersabackupfor the searchengine.
Askyourself,doesthisdocumentname containenoughdetailstoidentifythe documentcontents,or
doesthe name require the parentfoldername forfurthercontext? Usingthe 1-7566 example again,
howdo youknowthisis a policy document? Itwasmentionedinthatexample,butnothinginthe name
givesthataway,unlessthe numberseriesisuniquetopoliciesandall staff are aware of that. Perhaps
changingthe name to '1-7566 Illegal DumpingPolicyMay3 2013 isa betterapproach.
The name shouldalsobe unique. If there are multiple IllegalDumpingPolicydocsfor1-7566, then
anotherbitof data (that’smore likelytobe unique) shouldbe addedtothe name to helpdifferentiate
betweenthe documents.
Establisha common naming conventionelements.
Thispractice stronglycomplimentsthe intuitivepracticesmentionedabove. Byestablishingkeynaming
conventionsforadocument,usersare able toaccuratelyguessa document'sname evenif they don't
knowit forcertain, plushelptoensure uniformity. Thispractice will listsome commonelementsof a
namingconvention.
1-7566 Illegal DumpingMay3 2013
Number Name Date
Elements:
Type: What isthe key term(s) of the Document? Some examples - Well filesmayhave
documents/folderslike 'Completions',Accountingmayhave 'AccountsReceivable',andHuman
Resourcesmayhave 'BenefitsPackage'.

5. A namingconventiontype like 'OLDS-VNDR-PUR'couldrepresent3termsin priorityorder,
joinedbya dash:Olds(area),VNDRforVendor,andPUR representingPurchase. Thisdocument
name couldbe seenas lessintuitive,butwithacollectionthathasa large varietyof documents
it maybe a goodsolution,one thatachievesthe varietyanddetailsneeded, andthe
abbreviationskeeps the name fromgettingtoolong Staff doneedtoknow the abbreviations
for thisto be effectivehowever.
Date: Howwill the date be written? MM/DD/YYYY or DD/MM/YYYY? Keepinmindthat if either
methodwasutilized,there isamarginof error. Is 05/03/2015 May 3rd
or March 5th
? Ensure
that the date format isclearlycommunicatedtoexistingandnew employees. The monthcould
be a letterabbreviationinstead toavoidthisconfusion –Apr 5 2015 or perhapsApr/05/2015?
Number:Numberingitemsisacommonnamingconvention. Surface filesmayuse S12345 for
example,HRfilesmayuse the employeenumberinsteadof aname to increase privacy
protection. Shouldthe numberzero-filled–forexample 00045? Zerofillingtoasetnumberwill
permitapplications like windows tosortthe name by numberproperly,butsome applications
may dropthe leadingzeroswhenthe metadataisexported. Be aware of the riskand preventit
before itoccurs.
Orderthe elements
Place the mostimportantelementsfirstinthe namingconvention. Torepeatthe lastexample,the
policyname wasdeterminedtobe more importantthanthe document's date so itappearsbefore it, but
the policynumberisthe mostimportantelement,sositsfirst.
Elementseparators
Shouldthe elementsbe separatedbyaspace,data,underscore? There are pros / consfor each
method. Some are cleaner(space),butmaynotsearch as easilyasdata separatedbyan underscore (for
example) witholderdatabases. Inthis example:'OLDS-VNDR-PUR',usingadash separatorsuggests
these three abbreviationsare partof the whole documentnumber.
Some sites/userbestpractice preferencesmaychoose one overanotherforvariousreasons.
Leveragingthe previous example, if the database holdingthe documents hadissuessearchingforwords
whenseparatedbya space perhaps usinganunderscore insteadisabettersolution. Visuallyitgivesthe
same effect,butthe wordsaren'tseparate. Wouldhavinga space separatorbe an issue withyour
database?
Stop the 'Silo' thinking.
Some documentsbynecessityneedtobe sharedbetweenmultiplegroups. Forexample, overthe lifeof
a well,the well file wouldbe neededbythe drillinggroup,the completionsgroup, reclamationand
remediation, possiblyjointventure/interest, Healthsafetyandenvironment,Land,etc. If one
departmentdecidedthatsince theyare the groupthat maintainsthe file collection duringthe
completionsphase (forexample),they 'own'the records withfinal sayonhow the documentsare

6. organizedandstored,andthe chosensolution doesn'ttake the othergroupsneedsintoaccount,
essentiallycreatingadata silothatother groupswouldhave difficultyfinding.
Anyfolderstructuresordocumentnamingconventionsneedtobe designedwithALLstakeholders'
needsinmind. Documentandfoldernamingneedstobe intuitivetoall stakeholders,otherwise itwill
fail at some point.
Use teamwork to developand establishthe structures / naming conventions.
To ensure a folderstructure ordocumentnamingconventioncapturessufficientinformation,itisa
goodideato put togetherateam of stakeholdersandcollaborateonthe design. A groupdesigned
solutionismore likelytohave all the perspectivescoveredas well asget'buy-in'fromthe userswhowill
be usingthe convention/structure.
Supporting Best Practices
Workingwithusersto developandimplementafolderstructure ordocumentnamingconventionisthe
beginning,butwithoutefforttomaintainthe structure,docnamingconventionsmaystoppedbeing
followed,wastingthe time andefforttosetitup.
Communicate the naming convention or folderstructures.
An established folderstructure and/ornamingconventionwill have novalue unlessit'seffectively
communicatedtothe users. Userscannot follow namingconventionsif theydonotknow whatthey
are. Newemployeesalsoneedtobe educatedonthe structure andconventionstohelpensure a
smoothtransitionintotheirnewjoborrole andto continue followingthe standards. Includea
statementthatall staff membersare expectedtofollowsthe namingconvention,structure design,etc.
Audit to ensure compliance.
Staff are expectedtobe professionalandfollow establishedpractices. However, thatunfortunately
doesn'talwayshappen. Some will simplynotwanttofollow the namingconventionsorstructuresand
do whattheywish. Or perhapssomeone has misinterpretedthe namingconventionandnamed
documentsincorrectly? Auditingandpursuing/enforcingthe correctionof errorsisimportant.
Establishedconventionsprovide novalue if theyaren'tbeingfollowed.
Glossary
Metadata: selectword(s) thataccurately describe adocument’scontentsandare importantforclarity
or as search terms.