Undocumented Features

Meeting Notes Matter

December 17, 2007 – 2:10 pm

Meeting notes are one of the great chores of Project Management and Corporate life in general.  No one wants to take them, few people bother to read them, and everyone wonders why people bother.

The reason to bother is obvious:  to note things worth remembering.  Most projects span a considerable amount of time.  Building a new piece of software can span months or years.  People also usually are involved in multiple projects.  Remembering the details of each project is a real challenge.  When confusion eventually sets in on what was decided, who said what, who committed to do what, and so on, meeting notes become invaluable.

Considering that, when is the last time you reviewed your meeting notes?  Who is writing them?  Are they capturing all of the valid points?  Are they capturing all of the decisions made?  The commitments?  Are they capturing any details that you don’t remember happening?  If so, are you following up on those details to ensure that they’re valid?

He who writes history defines history.  So too with meeting notes.  Once enough time has past that people do not remember every detail of a given meeting, it’s meeting notes become reality, not the meeting itself.  Set up a regular time each week to review meeting notes from that week and ensure accuracy.  Commit to spend 30 minutes once a week to read everything.  Add addendums as needed and check all points that you have questions on for validity.  If you don’t, it can bite you later.

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