Chapter 25 — Life cycle and records
Lesson map
Lesson 25 published. Map, example, EX073.
flowchart TD
N0["Learning outcomes"]
N1["25.1 The life cycle"]
N2["25.2 Records management"]
N3["25.3 Retention needs"]
N4["25.4 Deletion in practice"]
N0 --> N1 --> N2 --> N3 --> N4
N4 --> EX["Worked example"]
EX --> Q["Exercise EX073"]
Logical drawing
flowchart LR
N0["Learning outcomes"]
N1["25.1 The life cycle"]
N2["25.2 Records management"]
N3["25.3 Retention needs"]
N4["25.4 Deletion in practice"]
N0 --> N1 --> N2 --> N3 --> N4 --> Q["EX073"]
[Learning outcomes]
|
v
[25.1 The life cycle]
|
v
[25.2 Records management]
|
v
[25.3 Retention needs]
|
v
[25.4 Deletion in practice]
|
v
[Worked example] --> [Exercise EX073]
Learning outcomes
You will (1) describe the data life cycle; (2) relate records management to governance; (3) define retention needs.
25.1 The life cycle
Amara describes the life cycle of loyalty data: collection at sign-up, storage, use for points and offers, sharing with service providers, archiving and deletion. At each stage, governance asks who is responsible, what rules apply and what could go wrong. She finds that Harbourline manages collection and use carefully but gives little thought to archiving and deletion, so data accumulate indefinitely even when nobody uses them any longer. Amara marks each stage on her diagram with the owner responsible and the rules that apply.
25.2 Records management
Records management deals with information kept as evidence of business activity, such as invoices, contracts and staff files. Amara learns that records have legal retention periods and must remain trustworthy throughout. She notes that governance and records management share goals, such as knowing what is held and keeping it only as long as needed, and suggests that Harbourline's records officer join the governance group so that both disciplines work together. The records officer joins the group at its next meeting and welcomes the link.
25.3 Retention needs
Amara builds a draft retention schedule. Financial transaction records are kept for the period tax law requires. Loyalty member data are kept while membership is active and for three years after the last activity, to handle queries and returning members, then deleted. Marketing analysis uses aggregated data after that period. Each entry has a reason, an owner and a trigger for starting the clock. She asks owners to confirm entries before the group approves the schedule. All owners confirm their entries within a month.
25.4 Deletion in practice
Deletion is harder than it sounds. Data exist in backups, extracts and reports. Amara recommends that deletion jobs run monthly on live systems, that backups expire on a defined cycle and that extracts follow the same rules. She also suggests recording deletions as evidence. Dr. Lindqvist notes that the GDPR storage limitation principle requires this kind of practical approach, because a policy saying data will be deleted means little without working deletion processes. Amara writes these steps into the deletion procedure for the loyalty steward.
Worked example
Amara maps the loyalty life cycle and finds weak archiving and deletion, links records management to governance, drafts a retention schedule with three years after last activity for loyalty data and designs practical deletion.
Synthetic case. The schedule is synthetic; the GDPR is real.
Errors and limits
Retention schedules without deletion jobs are only promises.
Exercises
- EX073 — Neglected stages. Which life cycle stages were neglected? Rubric: 3 = archiving and deletion;; 2 = both;; 1 = one;; 0 = none.
- EX074 — Loyalty retention. How long are loyalty data kept after last activity? Rubric: 3 = three years;; 2 = partly correct;; 1 = wrong;; 0 = none.
- EX075 — Deletion places. Where else besides live systems must deletion reach? Rubric: 3 = backups and extracts;; 2 = both;; 1 = one;; 0 = none.
Continue studying — lesson 25 (chapter 25 of 40)
← Chapter 24 · Course chapter index · Chapter 26 →
Continue to the next authored lesson.