I usually find out the preference of the users or IT administrator and it's
usually one of three things: (1) to parse sections of the db and establish
particular retention periods for each, (2) to run static reports and
consider those the (only) 'records, (3) to retain the whole database. The
last option entails locking the down the database at a certain point, e.g.
at the end of a project, and using the youngest record's creation or
modified date to begin the retention period; this is similar to the concept
of 'closing the record series' (a phrase repeated in the UK government's
ERMS requirements standard). The first option is surprisingly popular with
some IT people if the database is big, complex, with multiple IT support
people, strict capacity limits, and if different business units use
different sections of the system. The second option: it's difficult to reach
consensus on what to capture in a report, and what is important will change
over time anyway, plus there are risks to deleting the underlying data (you
never know what will be needed in a law suit).


-- 
Maureen,

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