Content Retirement

Definition

Content Retirement

the content management task during which obsolete content is removed from one or more systems or applications and optionally archived for future use

Classification

As illustrated in the preceding figure, Content Retirement is part of the following inheritance hierarchy:

• Type: Concrete
• Superclass: Task
• Subclasses:
  • None

Responsibilities

The typical responsibilities of Content Retirement are to:

• Remove obsolete content from applications and access by their users.
• Archive potentially reusable obsolete content for possible future reuse.

Preconditions

Content retirement typically can begin when the following preconditions hold:

• The usage phase has started.
• The content management team is staffed and trained in content retirement.
• The published content database contains content to be retired.

Completion Criteria

Content retirement is typically complete when the following postconditions hold:

• The construction phase has started.
• The published content database is empty.
• The content cache is empty.
• The content archive contains all obsolete, but potentially reusable content.
• The content metadata database documents all content as deleted or archived.

Steps

Content retirement typically involves the following teams performing the following steps in an iterative, incremental, parallel, and time-boxed manner:

• Content Management Team:
  • Identify obsolete content (possibly automated if the content metadata includes the obsolecense date).
  • Remove the content from usage by removing it from the:
    • Published content database.
    • Content cache.
  • Archive potentially reusable content in the content archive.
  • Update the state of the content in the content metadata database.

Techniques

Content retirement can be performed using the following techniques:

• Tagged data (metadata)
• Reuse

Work Products

Content retirement typically results in the production of the following work products:

• Archived Data Components.

Guidelines

• Content retirement should be performed iteratively, incrementally, and in parallel with the other content management tasks during the usage phase.
• Content retirement is an ongoing task during the usage phase, with content being retired as it becomes obsolete. Thus, content retirement should not be deferred until the retirement phase.
• There is potential overlap between this task and the retire data components task of the retirement activity.