System Retirement and Decommissioning Plan — what it is and when you need it
PlannedDefines how a system is withdrawn while GxP records stay retrievable for their full retention period.
- Who writes it
- The data integrity function, with the user carrying ownership.
- When it appears
- Sustain stage — Change, review and requalification.
- What requires it
- EU GMP Annex 11 — clause 17
- GAMP 5 — clause Chapter 4.4
- Traceability
- Traces back to URS requirement IDs. Each acceptance criterion here should name the requirement it verifies.
What it must contain
- Scope, system identification and the revision it applies to.
- The responsibilities of each contributing function, and the approvers.
- A traceability column linking every item back to the URS requirement it addresses.
- Acceptance criteria or decision rules stated before execution.
- Handling of deviations, and how they are dispositioned before approval.
Common mistakes
- Writing it after the work, so it records what happened instead of governing it.
- Acceptance criteria that are unmeasurable, or added once results are known.
- Broken traceability — requirement IDs renumbered without updating this document.
- Approvals collected from titles rather than from the functions that contributed.
Where it sits in the lifecycle
- Available
- In development
- Planned
- Connector lines show traceability back to URS requirement IDs.
Pharma4i does not generate this document yet
The URS module is the only generator available today. Leave your address and you'll hear once this one exists — signups decide what we build next.
Related in Computerised System Validation