The ISO/IEC 15489 part 1 and part 2 standard was created by the International Organization for Standardization-ISO in Ottawa, Canada, in September 2000. This standard, based on the Australian AS 4390 (Record Management) on document management, is the first ISO standard developed for the comprehensive management of archival systems, archives and archival documents.

The Standard provides guidelines regarding the document management policy, fully explaining the assignment of responsibilities that an organization must define in a document management system. In addition, it highlights the importance of supervision and auditing, for which it presents aspects to consider, such as:

The first, called “generalities”, defines the necessary results that must be achieved in records management, sets out the main objectives that must regulate the documents and formats, supports received or created by any organization in the exercise of its activities or by any individual responsible for creating or maintaining documents; offers a series of terms and definitions related to document management that clarify its use and prevent other interpretations; indicates the responsibilities of organizations for documents and the policies, procedures, systems and processes related to these documents; facilitates the design and administration of document management systems in support of quality management systems, environmental management systems and occupational health and safety systems; and includes the benefits of document management, the principles that a document management system must address; and draws attention to the characteristics of the documents, especially authenticity, reliability, integrity and availability.

The standard also considers formal aspects of conformity and changes in a document management program, for which it designs a methodology that must respond to the needs of the organization that hosts it, and includes the following aspects:

The document management system must record each document in the system, then classify it, assign metadata, numbers and codes, define its storage and access for consultation and include its traceability and final disposition.[1]​.

The second part specifies the methodology for the implementation of the ISO/IEC 15489-1 standard in all organizations, respecting the legislation and regulations that apply at the national level.

It presents an overview of the processes and factors to be considered, and products for the design and implementation of a Records System for each of the points specified in part 1 of the standard.

It also specifies the instruments used in registry operations, specifying the following aspects: