How Do I Retire/Remove a "Support Document (for Process/Training/Task)"? Can it be Done Through the Doc Control Process?

Documents of Document Type Support Document for Process are ‘external’ documents that have been linked to a Process using the Link Documents function from within the Process.  When doing this, a document is actually created in SOLABS QM10 and the Document Type is set by default to Support Documents for Process.  This is the same for any ‘external’ documents linked to a Training Activity or to a Task but in these cases, the Document Type will be respectively set to: Support Document for TA and Support Document for Task.

When using the Link Documents function from within a Process, a Training Activity, or a Task, the documents are created in specific Hidden folders in the Document Treeview (Process Related Items, TA Related Items, Task Related Items folders).  These folders are visible and accessible only by users having Administer privileges on those folders.  This includes by default any users in the role SOLABS System Administrator for the documents linked to a Process or a Task and any users in the roles SOLABS System Administrator + SOLABS Training Administrator for a document linked to a Training Activity (unless the privileges have been modified on the hidden folders).

If documents that are linked to a Process, a Task, or a Training Activity are no longer required, the first way to ‘get rid’ of these is:

❶ Remove the documents from being linked using the Remove Links function when accessing the concerned item.

      This function is available:

• For a Process: while the Process is in a status of ‘In Process’.  When the Process is Completed, this function is not available anymore.

          → Required privileges on the Process to have this function: Act On

• For a Training Activity: while the Training Activity is in an 'Active' status.  Once the Training Activity is Closed, this function is not available anymore.

          → Required privileges to have this function: available only to users in role SOLABS Training Administrator

• For a Task: at any time.

          → Required privileges to have this function:

                For tasks within a Task group that is Under Construction or On Hold: Modify

                For tasks within a Task group that is Active: View for Assignee or Modify for other users

                For tasks within a Task group that is Closed: Administer

However, removing the link will NOT retire the document.  If the document was linked in an Approved & Effective status it will just be removed from being attached as a Related Item to the Process, the Training Activity, or the Task.   It will still exist in the specific Hidden folder location where it was stored when originally linked.  If the document was linked in an Authoring status, then the document will be deleted from the specific Hidden folder location.

❷ The second way is to Retire the documents through a Retire Cycle.

• These documents can be sent through a Retire Cycle the same way as a document created within SOLABS QM10.  As mentioned above, users must have Administer privileges in order to see and access these documents so would need the same to retire them.
• In this case, the retired document will remain linked to the Process, Training Activity, or Task but will be visible in the Related Items section only by users having the privileges to see retired documents (Modify).

Can the Retire Cycle be done through a Document Control Process?

It is NOT possible to retire documents of Document Types Support Documents for Process, Support Documents for Training Activity, or Support Documents for Task through the DOC Control Process because these Document Types are excluded from the list of Document Types available in the process.

NOTE: It is also NOT possible to have documents of these Document Types superseded by another document because they will not be retrieved in the results when searching for the document to be linked as superseded.