Control Objectives for DP: Digital Preservation as an Integrated Part of IT Governance

Digital Preservation, often seen as information management with a long-term mission, is recognized as an independent research area, but the field’s maturity is still evolving. Reference models and compliance criteria for archival systems are being developed, but the more general perspective of Governance, Risk and Compliance has yet to be fully considered. In particular, Digital Preservation can take advantage of the powerful tools for structuring processes to exercise control, assign responsibilities, and quantify goal achievements, provided by IT Governance. This paper presents an integrated vision for Digital Preservation that aligns key organizational preservation processes with a leading framework for IT Governance. Based on a high-level capability model, we define control objectives for core Digital Preservation processes, present a reference assignment of responsibilities and accountabilities to typical Digital Preservation stakeholders, and discuss a maturity model for Digital Preservation processes. The resulting processes are related to key IT Governance processes. This integrated process model enables organizations with a long-term vision on the value of digital information to sustain and govern their Digital Preservation activities.