Notes, Queries and Actions ...

[Malcolm]

I immedaitely see Journals as a way to perform what you
want, performs as a custom journal form. An easy way to
do it is to create a contact item for each of your
projects. Use the Full Name field for the name of your
project. Right click (Or use the Actions menu) and
choose new journal entry to create a journal entry
associated with that project. Using custom forms, you
can have the journal entry have a box to enter names to
mail the results to. Or just have a Public Folder and
rather than emailing everyone everytime, just tell them
to look at the activities for the project.

I typically create a contact folder in the Public
Folders, and then have a sub-folder under it be the
journaling folder. Right click on the contact folder,
click on the Activities tab, then you can choose the
journal folder to associate it with.

Malcolm

-----Original Message-----
I want to create an application for recording notes,

queries and actions relating to projects and I think
Outlook / Exchange is the right environment.

The N/Q/As may come from any of:

- meetings on specific projects,
- regular weekly meetings on all outstanding projects,
- telephone calls,
- visits to customers,
- the day-to-day conduct of project work.

We may call each of the above an "Occasion", and details

of each occasion (nature, date, time, location, people
present etc.) will be recorded. Occasion records may be
created by anyone associated with the project, and will
record the creator.

Actions (tasks) will be assigned to individuals or

groups, and progress will be monitored. Individuals to
whom new actions have been assigned will be notified by
email. Actions will be closed on completion.

Queries may be assigned to individuals, but will require

a response to be recorded before the query is closed.
Individuals to whom new queries have been assigned will
be notified by email.

Meetings will be minuted. Minutes will consist of notes,

queries and actions, and for the weekly project meetings,
may relate to any of the current projects. Meeting
minutes, or at least a notification that a meeting's
minutes have been posted, will be emailed to designated
recipients. Such a notification will state whether the
minutes contain any actions assigned to the recipient.

The aggregate of all the N/Q/As, whether complete or

incomplete, for a given project will serve as a history
of the project or project diary.

All the incomplete N/Q/As for a project will serve as a

to-do list for the project and will be a key project
management tool.

I have something like the above prototyped in Access,

but Access is not widely available in the company, and I
cannot use the email and offline capabilities of Outlook
in that environment.

SO ...

I could do with some advice on how to structure this.

- If each N/Q/A is an Outlook item, how can I have a meeting record?
- If each Action or Query is a task, how can I avoid

individuals getting dozens of separate tasks by email
immediately after a project meeting?

- Also how could the person writing the minutes record

an action assigned to him/herself since it seems
impossible to assign a task to oneself?

- On the other hand, if each occasion is an item, can I

create a form that will allow multiple N/Q/As to be
recorded and associated with it.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Malcolm

I can see the possibilities of this approach. Now, suppose I open the Project/Contact record, one thing I would want to be able to do is create a new journal entry, with the Project/Contact details already filled in. (I think) Is this possible?