Defining Investigation Management

By now, many in the business world have heard of investigation management. However, they’re just as likely to be unable to define the term.

And that’s why we’re creating this article to define investigation management and lay out the digital investigations and case management technology needed to deploy successful investigation management processes at your organization.

What is an investigation?

So, why is investigation management so difficult to pin down?

It’s not ignorance. In fact, investigation management challenges conventional definitions because investigations themselves can be so wide-ranging.

Just consider: an investigation is simply a formal or systematic examination or research. In the organizational (including law enforcement) context, it refers to any fact-finding process of logically, methodically, and lawfully gathering and documenting information for the specific purpose of objectively developing a reasonable conclusion based on the facts learned through the process.

What is investigation management?

The formalized business management process surrounding investigations is investigation management. But that’s not a very satisfying definition.

What is? We can say investigation management is a structured approach of managing investigations from beginning to end.

Within that structured approach, investigation management refers to the specific system(s) of controlling the tasks, information, and people involved with an investigation.

What are all the elements involved in investigation management, though? They’re likely to include:

• Teams
• Witnesses
• Pieces of evidence
• Processes, including deadlines and workflows

Effective investigation management itself consists of setting clear objectives, creating detailed plans, and maintaining effective communication throughout the investigative process.

Benefits of effective investigation management

In response, one might say that investigative work is already rather intuitive; why then the need to formalize investigative work into the management process of investigation management?

Although investigative work might be intuitive, it’s also complex and unpredictable, often involving accessing fragmented data sources to meet the fast-changing needs of stakeholders.

Here, the adaptive yet formal investigation management process helps to bring coherence to investigations.

A classic example is the law enforcement scenario.

In law enforcement investigations, data overload is common.

Not just that. Relevant information might be strewn across multiple, siloed channels (formal reports, case notes, jottings from telephone calls, case evidence, witness statements, etc.), making it even more difficult to access the right information when it’s needed most.

Law enforcement work, in general, also involves communicating across channels, particularly when multiple, related investigations are happening simultaneously with little transparency.

Investigation management, here, works by enabling workers to go through investigations more methodically but also to interact more efficiently with information, resources, and services. In turn, stakeholders make quicker, more informed decisions throughout the life cycle of the investigation.

Prerequisites of an effective investigation

The question then turns to how does investigation management work?

Well, the first prerequisite of an effective investigation is establishing the scope of the investigation (or statement of work). That scope should define which processes, functions, activities, physical boundaries (facilities and locations), and shareholders to include.

After establishing the scope of the investigation, stakeholders must determine investigation roles. Those roles and responsibilities must be clearly defined.

Typically, investigative leads and higher ups will then set the objectives for the investigation.

Further prerequisites include:

• Identifying stakeholders
• Addressing assumptions
• Gathering applicable policies
• Allocating resources
• Reviewing documentation control policies and practices.

How to proceed with a formalized investigation process

From there, teams will proceed with the formal investigation. There’s likely to be pre-existing guidance on how to conduct investigations – guidance that will vary from sector to sector.

However, there are some truisms about how to proceed with effective investigations. In the business management literature, we learn that investigations not only should have well-defined objectives but that those objectives should also be understood within the business and risk management context of the organization.

What’s the best mode of defining investigative objectives, methodologies, and processes so that they can be repeatable and scalable?

That mode is applying the PDCA cycle to building the investigation program.

Standing for planning, doing, checking (or studying), and acting, the PDCA cycle is a continuous loop providing a simple and effective approach for solving problems and managing change.

Building an effective investigation program using the PDCA cycle looks like the following:

Plan: Establishing the framework and defining and planning the program

The step consists of:

• Understand the context of the organization, i.e., how does the investigation align with the organization’s overall mission and enterprise-wide objectives?

• Determine needs and requirements

• Lay out the objectives of the investigation program

• Gain management commitment

• Establish roles and responsibilities

• Garner legal and other requirements

• Lay down competence requirements

• Make an assessment of risk

• Figure out a program approach and procedures

• Commit resources

Do: Implementing the investigation program

The step consists of:

• Set criteria for individual investigations

• Identify investigative methods

• Evaluate and select investigators based on competence

• Establish roles and responsibilities

• Ensure control of documentation, records, and documents

• Perform investigation and operational control

• Manage outcomes

Check: Monitoring the investigation program

The step consists of:

• Monitor, measure, and evaluate program performance

• Evaluate program risk management outcomes

• Take preventative actions and actions for nonconformity

• Monitor investigator competence and skills

Act: Review and improvement

The step consists of:

• Gauge adequacy and effectiveness

• Assess need for change

• Consider opportunities for improvement

• Prevention and awareness

Digital investigations and case management software to operationalize effective investigation management

A traditional frustration with conducting investigations is the manual form those investigations take. This often leads to the fragmentation of information and findings, which prevents a clear picture from forming.

To mitigate that challenge, digital technology has been purpose built to ensure potential threats are identified and tracked and all relevant information and findings from investigations are consolidated to ensure better understanding of drivers and causes.

The key features of these investigations and case management software solutions include:

Investigation management

Conduct incident investigations to understand the causes and learn from disruptions, capture facts, evidence, and statements as well as identify options to prevent reoccurrence and be better prepared to respond in the future.

Case management

Capture case notes and log case details, assign tasks, conduct meetings, and communicate with personnel about all aspects of a case or investigation.

Observations

Collect observations, tips, referrals, and complaints using public forms accessed via QR codes, email, SMS, or the mobile app to ensure teams remain informed about what is happening throughout your operations.

Entities of interest

Manage persons, organizations, and assets of interest across your organization, and maintain a BOLO register, to ensure teams have the latest intelligence about entities in a format that is easily distributed via notices, to keep interested parties informed and support better decision-making.

Findings and recommendations

Easily produce and monitor case and investigation findings and recommendations in a unified platform and keep interested parties informed to support better decision-making.

Communications

Makes it easy to work in real-time with your team and keep everyone informed with built-in communication and collaboration tools like chat, email, SMS, voice, and app push messages.

Analytics and reporting

Create custom reports that summarize historical data with the help of charts, recommendations, and automated approvals. Export these as PDF or Word documents and share with stakeholders and executives to empower informed decision-making and strengthen resilience.

Finally, there are many ways to investigate. But the formalized process of conducting investigations is investigation management.

Deploying techniques such as the PDCA cycle for building investigative programs alongside digital investigation management software, like Noggin, can help drive investigations forward by capturing facts, evidence, and statements as well as identifying options to prevent reoccurrence and be better prepared to respond in the future.

But don’t just take our word for it. Request a demonstration to see Noggin in action for yourself.