ISO 18829:2017 identifies activities and operations that an organization needs to perform, or have performed, to evaluate whether the electronically stored information (ESI) is or was maintained in a reliable and trustworthy environment(s). These environments utilize content or records management technologies commonly referred to as either enterprise content management (ECM) or electronic document and records management (EDRM) enforcing organizational records management policies and schedules.

ISO/TR 15801 and ISO 15489 (all parts) established the standards and best practices associated with implementing trustworthy records/document management environments. However, a standard is necessary to define the methodology used to evaluate these types of records/document management environments regardless of what technologies are currently employed by the organization. ISO 18829:2017 establishes the assessment methodology to be followed to identify the level of organizational compliance with these standards as related to trustworthiness and reliability of information stored in these environments.

ISO 18829:2017 is applicable to existing or planned ECM systems. Establishing the existence of a trustworthy system is an important step in documenting the reliability of ESI maintained within that system or environment. ISO 18829:2017 is designed for use by organizations evaluating the trustworthiness of existing record/document management environments. ISO 18829:2017 identifies all of the mandatory activities and areas that need to be examined by a resource, or resources, with a thorough technical and operational knowledge of the specific technologies and methodologies being examined, along with understanding record management processes and activities.