Functional Requirements
Specific, testable statements of what a recordkeeping system or process must do — capture, classify, retain, dispose, secure, and audit records — used to design, procure, and evaluate compliant solutions.
Functional requirements describe the concrete capabilities a records management system or process must provide, as opposed to non-functional concerns like performance, scalability, or usability. In recordkeeping they spell out, in testable terms, that a system can capture records and their metadata, classify items against a file plan or taxonomy, apply retention schedules, execute disposition (transfer or defensible destruction), control access, preserve integrity, and produce reliable audit trails.
They matter because they turn abstract recordkeeping principles into criteria you can write into a requirements document, verify during procurement, and test before go-live — making compliance demonstrable rather than assumed. Standards such as ISO 16175 express functional requirements for managing records in digital environments.
For example, NARA’s Universal ERM Requirements, developed under FERMI, now serve as the federal reference; in NARA Bulletin 2022-01 (2022) NARA revoked its endorsement of DoD 5015.2, though many products remain certified against that older functional-requirements standard.