The bias profile and the system life cycle
The profile keeps the initial, intermediate and most recent versions of every task document, and every clause reads and updates it.
What clause 5.2 asks
Each task keeps three versions of its documents: the first, any middle ones, and the latest. Older versions stay; the newest does not wipe them out. Information moves both forward and back between steps, because a cause can be found far from where the effect appears and some effects take time to show. Risk and the effect on people are reviewed at every milestone, so the treatment plan can be complete. The document does not prescribe the treatments themselves. It shows how to build a method that finds where treatment is needed and what it should address.
Why it matters
Version history is the difference between a record and a snapshot. When a bias is found in production, the team needs to know what the data, the stakeholder set and the risk assessment looked like at the version that produced the output. If the profile only holds the latest version, the investigation starts from a reconstruction. The clause also makes the iteration bidirectional: a finding in clause 9 can send the team back to clause 6 or 7, and the record has to show that return.
What good looks like
Define the document set for each task and the version rule before the first iteration. Use a naming convention that shows task, version and date. At every milestone, record which versions were current. When a later clause sends work back, create a new version rather than editing the old one, and link the new version to the finding that caused it.
Evidence an assessor asks for
The assessor will pick a finding from the evaluation and trace it back to the data and stakeholder versions in force at the time. A profile that cannot support that trace is not a through-life record.
- Version register Task, version, date and the change that produced each version
- Milestone record The versions current at each life cycle milestone
- Return links A link from each later finding to the earlier task version it changes
- Retention rule How long the versions are kept and who can access them
Where it commonly fails
- Only the latest version is kept
- A finding is closed by editing the old record, so the history disappears
- Milestones are not recorded, so no one knows which version was live
What to do before publication
Write the version rule before the first entry. It is much harder to impose after three teams have started.