Which sequence represents policy lifecycle management?

• A. Created, approved, communicated, trained, implemented, updated, and retired
• B. Designed, approved, archived, and reviewed
• C. Retire first, then implement
• D. Create, modify, and discard policies without review

Answer: (A)

Policy lifecycle management follows a complete journey from birth to retirement, ensuring a policy stays relevant, enforceable, and properly governed. The sequence that starts with Created and progresses through approved, communicated, trained, implemented, updated, and retired captures every critical phase. Creating the policy defines its purpose and scope; approval brings governance and accountability; communicating it ensures stakeholders know it exists; training equips people to understand and follow it; implementing it puts the policy into practice; updating accommodates changes in the business or regulatory environment; and retiring it marks when the policy is no longer needed or has been superseded. This end-to-end flow keeps policies alive and effective rather than letting them sit unused, misunderstood, or obsolete. The other options miss essential steps, misorder activities, or skip review and retirement, so they don’t reflect a full lifecycle.