30 days, then destroy.

This is probably why the software development is so damn fragmented.
Bugs that were fixed slip back in.

BECAUSE NO ONE HAS ANY INSTITUTIONAL MEMORY.

I refer to emails that are years old. If I'm looking at a chunk of code that was part of a project a while ago, and I need to understand WHY it is doing what it is, nothing beats the email conversations that triggered the change, no matter how good the comments are.

[link|http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/11/ms_legal_mail_autodestruct/|http://www.theregist...ail_autodestruct/]

\nSo in the normal course of events documents would be \ndestroyed swiftly, documents would be saved only by a \ndocument retention notice, and if document retention \nnotices were not sent to the right people (the Burst \nbrief argues that they were not), then by the time \nthose people were properly identified the documents \nwould almost certainly have been destroyed. Microsoft \nexec Jim Allchin, who seems to be shaping up as a star\nexhibit, instructed Windows division employees in January\n 2000 to delete emails from their hard drives after 30 \ndays. "Do not be foolish," he said, "do not archive your\n e-mail." In response to emails about this instruction \nAllchin sends another which confirms the existence of an \n"official policy" on document retention sent company-wide \nin the summer of 1996, and says that this is the only \nwritten policy. Allchin however reiterates his 30 day \ninstruction, adding an exception only for those who \n"have received specific instructions from Legal to retain\n certain documents or email that may be related to \npending litigation. These instructions override the \ngeneral policy."\n