Overview

Organisations are awash with information. Although the topics discussed in the previous section should help place some management controls around the creation of information, it is also necessary to think about how that information can and should be used. This is not to try to prevent innovation or stifle creativity, but to balance these positive aspects with the potential risks to the interests of your organisation which could occur as a result of the unfettered and uncontrolled use of information.

The active use phase of the lifecycle can best be described as the period during which information is in constant or regular use, primarily as part of the purpose for which it was originally created. There are no hard and fast rules for defining exactly what constitutes active use, but information which matches some or all of the following characteristics is likely to fall into this category:

• information which relates to a project or subject that is live and ongoing
• information required to perform a current function
• information still in draft status
• information that has been accessed and/or edited within the past three months, and
• the most current version of information that is routinely updated on a scheduled basis (for example the most recent version of an asset register which is only updated every five years)

Addressing the following questions will help ensure that your information is managed appropriately whilst in active use: