Document Management System

A document management system (DMS) is a computer system (or set of computer programs) used to track and store electronic documents and/or images of paper documents. The term has some overlap with the concepts of Content Management Systems and is often viewed as a component of Enterprise Content Management Systems and related to Digital Asset Management, Document imaging, Workflow systems and Records Management systems.

Location	Where will documents be stored? Where will people need to go to access documents? Physical journeys to filing cabinets and file rooms are analogous to the onscreen navigation required to use a document management system.
Filing	How will documents be filed? What methods will be used to organize or index the documents to assist in later retrieval? Document management systems will typically use a database to store filing information.
Retrieval	How will documents be found? Typically, retrieval encompasses both browsing through documents and searching for specific information.
Security	How will documents be kept secure? How will unauthorized personnel be prevented from reading, modifying or destroying documents?
Disaster Recovery	How can documents be recovered in case of destruction from fires, floods or natural disasters?
Retention	How long should documents be retained? This is an organizational policy and practice that defines what information, or documents, are to be retained; for what length of time; and what point in time the information must be removed or deleted. Retention rules are usually based on organizational practice of Records Management
Archiving	How can documents be preserved for future readability? Archiving is the removal from the active repository of documents and related metadata that have, by organizational definition, reached the end of their active lifespan, and are required to be stored, or archived, in a separate area. Usually archiving entails movement of documents, whether paper or electronic to a separate storage facility, be it an archival warehouse, or a nearline or offline storage device.
Distribution	How can documents be available to the people that need them?
Workflow	If documents need to pass from one person to another, what are the rules for how their work should flow?
Creation	How are documents created? This question becomes important when multiple people need to collaborate, and the logistics of version control and authoring arise.
Authentication/Approval	How do we provide needed requirements for legal submission to government and private industry that the documents are original and meet their standards for authentication?