DOCA.6:5.2 - A retained question can cease to be a stepping stone

In another constructed case, a team retains a representative-data access question because its answer could open a bounded model-evaluation route. The local retention policy permits keeping the question and its existing source notes until the data steward answers, at negligible additional burden. It authorizes no processing or trial.

An affirmative, use-specific result would allow the team to qualify that evaluation route’s remaining conditions. A refusal for the proposed processing would close the data-dependent branch. A narrower permission would create a narrower candidate requiring its own receiving-use qualification.

The steward rules out the proposed use. The team retires the stepping-stone claim for that route; saving the historical answer can prevent the same unsupported request from recurring. It retains the independently permitted manual-support direction and the receiving problem. The changed premise does not erase the whole portfolio.