Metrics Across the EDRM

The UTBMS eDiscovery Code Set is used to measure and analyze values across EDRM phases. Following is a breakdown of which codes apply within each phase and what they measure. For more information about the codes, go to UTBMS eDiscovery Code Set.

Identification

The Identification Phase involves three L600 codes to be tracked in order to improve budget projections.

L601: Discovery Planning – Includes initial review of complaint, development of ESI data map.
L602: Interviews – Activities and actions related to the conducting of interviews with custodians, data stewards, or other individuals or groups within the organization.
	Activities Custodians Systems	Identify infrastructure and software systems. Estimate data volume located on servers, smart phones, PCs, tablets, other devices, LAN, WAN, intranet, extranet, Internet etc.
	Custodians Systems Media Formats	Identified ESI data formats as well as paper formats, as well as potential need for decryption, scanning, translation forensic analysis, restoration.
	Custodians Media Formats	Identified volume for Media Types including custodial and non-custodial e-mail, server, removable media, archives, journals, paper files.
L609: Quality Assurance and Control – Activities and actions related to ensuring that the process and practices used to perform analysis meet an acceptable level of defensibility.
	Activities Custodians Status QA	Periodic reviews and status reports on efforts to identify, locate and estimate the volume of relevant ESI.

Preservation

The Preservation Phase involves three L600 codes to be tracked in order to improve budget projections.

L611: Preservation Order – Activities and actions related to ensuring that data is preserved in accordance with requirements and assist with any efforts to seek relief from preservation order that may be issued by the court. Includes notice letters to other parties.
L612: Legal Hold – Activities and actions related to a) developing / drafting of appropriate legal hold for nature of litigation and distributing to identified custodians and data stewards, b) tracking and monitoring of responses received from custodians and including addressing any questions, and c) the release of a custodian or data steward from legal hold due to conclusion of litigation via settlement, conclusion of appeal or otherwise.
	Activities Custodians Systems Media Status	Tracking and monitoring of legal hold responses and addressing questions from custodians and IT system custodians.
	Activities Custodians Systems Media Status	Tracking decision to issue legal hold letters to other parties.
	Activities Custodians Systems Media Status	Assistance with seeking relief from any preservation order or release from a legal hold.
L619: Quality Assurance and Control – Activities and actions related to ensuring that the process and practices used to perform analysis meet an acceptable level of defensibility.
	Activities Custodians Status QA	Verify that processes and practices meet an acceptable level of defensibility.

Collection

The Collection Phase involves tracking four L600 codes in order to improve budget projections.

L621: Collection/Recovery – Activities and actions related to the collection and/or recovery of a) custodial email residing on the network, server, home share or enterprise archive or journal, hard-drives and removable media, as well as paper files, b) collection and/or recovery of non-custodial data the network, server, group shares, removable media and paper files, and c) decrypting files, cracking passwords, files restoration and other forensic analysis activity. Includes selective collection, searches and source imaging.
L622: Media Costs – Activities and actions used to track the actual costs of media used for preservation, collection, production and other activities and actions requiring purchase or additional media or use of existing media resources.
L623: Media/ESI Transfer, Receipt, Inventory – Activities and actions related to the transfer, receipt, tracking an inventory of ESI.
	Custodians Status	Timely reports on the status and efficacy of document collection and recovery efforts.
	Custodians Systems Media Formats	Custodial and non custodial e-mail and data collected from various systems and media including a record of containers file types and data volumes.
	Activities Media Formats	Decryption, cracking passcodes, file restoration, and other forensic activities.
L629: Quality Assurance and Control – Activities and actions related to ensuring that the process and practices used to perform analysis meet an acceptable level of defensibility.
	Activities QA	Tracking chain-of-custody documentation.

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Processing

The Processing Phase involves tracking five L600 codes in order to improve budget projections.

L631: ESI Stage, Preparation and Process – Activities and actions related to staging, preparing and processing ESI. Includes culling, date filtering, key word application, ECA and other related.
L633: Foreign Language Translation – Activities and actions related to foreign language translation of both electronic and paper documents.
L634: Exception Handling – Activities and actions related to exception of both electronic and paper documents requiring special handling. Includes decryption.
	Activities Custodians Systems Media Formats	Tracking the volume of containers, records, duplicates, near duplicates, filtering results, key words, files with no-text, De-Nisting results.
	Activities Custodians Systems Media Status Formats	Metrics during processing assessment is a critical first step in the workflow as it allows the processing team to ensure that the processing phase is aligned with the overall e-discovery strategy, identify any processing optimizations that may result in substantive cost savings and minimize the risks associated with processing.
L632: Scanning – Hard Copy – Includes OCR, production of metadata, and other services involved around scanning.
	Activities Formats
L639: Quality Assurance and Control – Activities and actions related to ensuring that the process and practices used to perform analysis meet an acceptable level of defensibility.
	Activities QA

Review

The Review Phase requires seven L600 code items to be tracked in order to improve budget projections.

L651: Hosting Costs – Activities and action related to a)creation of the underlying database(s) in which unstructured and structured data which has been processed will reside for access and/or review, b) loading of the processed data into the underlying database(s), c) on-line storage required to store and make the processed data available for access and/or review, d) user access and license fees that provide the user with the ability to access and/or review the hosted data, and e) archiving data from and to on-line storage to a more cost effective for of storage such as near-line, secondary or off-line storage such as tape or cartridge in the event a matter goes dormant for a period of time.
L652: Objective and Subjective Coding – Activities and actions related to unitizing and the objective and subjective coding of basic bibliographic information related to both electronic and paper-based data and documents, including auto-coding.
L653: First Pass Document Review – Activities and actions related to performing first pass document review such as determining relevancy, issue coding, tagging, and initial privilege determination.
L654: Second Pass Document Review – Activities and actions related to second pass QC of data and documents coded for relevancy, issue codes, tagging, and initial privilege determination during the first pass review.
L655: Privilege Review – Activities and actions related to performing final privilege review and determination of documents, as well as all privilege log related work.
L656: Redaction – Activities and actions related to the development and implementation of a redaction protocol and the actual redaction of data and documents consistent with such a protocol.
	Activities Status	Timely reports and reviewing metrics to show rate of review and incurred cost per hour and per document.
	Activities Status	Development and providing of initial and ongoing training and development of review protocol.
	Activities Status	Review project analytics for cost comparisons and projections.
	Activities Status	Monitoring and evaluating work flow and efficiencies for better process and results.
L659: Quality Assurance and Control – Activities and actions related to ensuring that the process and practices used to perform analysis meet an acceptable level of defensibility.
	Activities QA	Activities and actions related to ensuring that the process and practices used to perform review meet an acceptable level of defensibility.

Analysis

The Analysis Phase involves tracking two L600 codes in order to improve budget projections.

L660: Analysis – Activities and actions required by litigation teams to be able to make informed decisions about strategy and scope through reliable methods based on verified data.
	Activities	Comparison of reviewer speed and quality to ensure top performance, efficiencies, and therefore cost savings.
	Activities	Reduce the amount of information that goes into and is stored by information management and archiving systems.
	Activities	Allows the case team to review the information and set appropriate expectations and budgetary requirements for the remainder of the project.
	Activities	Facts gathered related to litigation readiness.
	Activities	Activities and actions required by litigation teams to be able to make informed decisions about strategy and scope through reliable methods based on verified data.
L669: Quality Assurance and Control (not an official code)
	Activities QA	By using a metrics during project analytics the team can be proactive in finding problems in their e-discovery strategy or its implementation.
	Activities QA	Enhanced defensibility when using metrics for collection analysis sampling, gap report analysis, search term analysis, validation analysis, and quality assurance analysis.
	Activities QA	Activities and actions related to ensuring that the process and practices used to perform analysis meet an acceptable level of defensibility.

Production

The Production Phase involves tracking two L600 codes in order to improve budget projections.

L671: Conversion of ESI to Production Format – Activities and actions related to the TIFFing, bates stamping, endorsing, preparation of load files and deliverables to be provided as part of the data and/or document production(s). Also includes any technical time not included in the base production charges.
	Activities Media Status Formats	Activities and actions related to the TIFFing, bates stamping, endorsing, preparation of load files and deliverables to be provided as part of the data and/or document production(s). Also includes any technical time not included in the base production charges.
	Activities Systems Media Status Formats	Identify systems and process to produce responsive documents.
L679: Quality Assurance and Control – Activities and actions related to ensuring that the process and practices used to perform analysis meet an acceptable level of defensibility.
	Activities Status QA	Activities and actions related to ensuring that the process and practices used to perform production meet an acceptable level of defensibility.
	Activities Status QA	Identify systems and process to produce responsive documents.

Presentation

The Presentation Phase involves tracking two L600 codes in order to make accurate projections.

L680: Presentation – Activities and actions to prepare and display ESI before audiences (at depositions, hearings, trials, etc.), especially in native & near-native forms, to elicit further information, validate existing facts or positions, or persuade an audience.
L689: Quality Assurance and Control (not an official code) – Activities and actions related to ensuring that the process and practices used to perform analysis meet an acceptable level of defensibility.
	Activities QA