IT managers in the early stages of document management and Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) projects often find themselves facing a basic question: for how long should we keep documents? Unfortunately, the answer is far from straightforward and generally requires the creation of a retention schedule. While this concept is familiar to records managers, most IT arsenals are missing a process for creating a retention schedule.
This research note addresses the needs of IT leaders that are in the early stages of an electronic records management project. Specifically, this note:
- Explains the difference between documents and records.
- Identifies key stakeholders in records management projects.
- Describes a process for creating a retention schedule for records management and ILM projects.
A retention schedule is a crucial input to document management and ILM initiatives. Developing a schedule requires contributions from various stakeholders and a dedicated project plan.