A record life cycle refers to how long a record is kept, what actions should be taken (if any) as the record progresses through various stages of retention, and what is done with the record when its reaches the end of its life cycle.
A life cycle is a collection of phases through which a record must transition before it is disposed. The duration of life cycles vary. For example, a life cycle can be as short as zero days, or a life cycle can have no defined end. Each life cycle phase lasts a certain duration and denotes a specific records management activity that a records administrator performs at the beginning or at the end of the phase. Together, the phases comprise the life cycle duration.
All large organizations and government departments and agencies implement a records management policy. A records management policy dictates how long to keep records.
In IBM® Records Manager, you can manage the life cycle of both records and containers. When you apply a life cycle to top level components, all of the components' descendants go through the same life cycle. If there are conflicts between a descendant's life cycle and the life cycle of the of the top level component, Records Manager displays a warning so that you can resolve the conflict. IBM Records Manager lets organizations use their existing corporate records policy to manage all of their information.
A record life cycle typically consists of these stages:
- Record creation
- Record creation is the first stage of the life cycle. In IBM Records Manager, component creation occurs when the business application user declares a record. Declaring a record designates the record a corporate record. When a user declares a record, control of that record becomes the responsibility of the Records Administrator.
- Maintenance and use
- Maintenance and use is the second stage in the life cycle of a record. Maintenance and use refers to any action involving the storage, retrieval and handling of records.
- Disposition
- Disposition is the last stage in the life cycle of a record. When you dispose a file plan component, IBM Records Manager also disposes of all its descendants in the same way.
