Auditing your personal information management

1. Auditing your personal information management An action guide for the perplexed or merely curious Mark Gregory Teacher and Ph.D student ESC Rennes School of Business

2. An Healthy Uneasiness I • Did you ever feel … • How many times have you felt … • When was the last time you felt … • … that you did not have the right means to store, organise and retrieve your personal data?

3. An Healthy Uneasiness II • Do you have an effective system of folders and sub-folders on your computers? • Could you change it to make it better? How? • Do you use more than one computer and/or "platform" (e.g. Windows PC; Mac; smartphone)? • How do you synchronise them? • How do you protect them? • What happens to you when (not if!) you lose your smartphone? your hard disk contents?

4. Good news… • You are not alone! • In fact, you are a knowledge worker • Peter Drucker (1999) • You work in knowledge networks as part of (real or virtual) teams • Alvin Toffler (1990) observed that knowledge workers must have at their disposal systems to create, process and enhance their knowledge and that of their subordinates

5. What is Personal Information Management? • Knowledge and information workers work as individuals within team structures to get work done • Computer-based tools can assist in the storage and management of the information they acquire • However, little is understood about • How people use these tools • How they learn new ones • The ways in which the tools constrain the ways in which people work and think • How best to educate people to make the right choice of the right tools • Lots of tools (e.g. spreadsheets) – few people use them well!

6. Research context: a Ph.D in progress • TOPIC: “Towards a better understanding of how individuals and small groups use computer-based information and knowledge representation tools” • COLLABORATOR: Dr. Mario Norbis, Quinnipiac • We work together as KIMSPAG: Knowledge and Information Management Supporting People And Groups • OPEN UNIVERSITY SUPERVISOR: Prof. David Weir, Liverpool Hope University • INTERNAL SUPERVISOR: Dr. Dirk Schneckenberg

7. Our Aims and Yours • Part of our aim is to help you to become more efficient and effective by managing your personal information better • As you do this, we want you to tell us what works for you and why • So that we can improve our understanding of what works and why on the basis of your experiences and those of others • 1 + 1 = 3, win-win… • You are invited to participate in our Action Research! • Before you can do this, here’s some background…

8. Structure of this presentation • What PIM is • Productivity paradoxes • How to “do” PIM using your office suite • How to “do” PIM using specialist PIM programs • Researching PIM: our overall agenda • Auditing your personal information management: a suggested agenda for you • Challenges

9. “Err… Put it more simply, please…” • Q: • What is personal information management? • A1: • Storing the information you need to Get Things Done GTD • Examples: diary (agenda), to-do list • A2: • Keeping information in a way in which you can find it again and evolve it – Keeping Found Things Found KFTF • Keeping it up-to-date • Restructuring it when that’s necessary • Example: your Contacts / Address Book

10. Sample PIM (Ecco): Contacts + To-Do + Appointments Contacts / address list Folder hierarchy – itself an outline Appointment with highlighted person Details of highlighted person

11. Working better • We are motivated by or paid for what we do, what we achieve: for our work • Doing things involves processes, resources, information and knowledge • Doing bigger things in accordance with deadlines and budgets may require projects • Work is usually done in a competitive context – where we as individuals or as part of an organisation have to do and be better than others • Increasingly it is done collaboratively

12. The role of information management in work • Knowledge and information workers work as individuals within organisational departments • But departments are a relatively (and increasingly?) unimportant organisational convenience • More significant are work processes • Work processes require information which the worker stores in a large number of arbitrarily complex ways • Some are paper-based • But they’re increasingly computer-based • And they’re moving to the Web • Processes are sometimes individual but very often involve collaboration, implying shared information • Some of the time we work in virtual team structures to do one-off particular tasks • This way of working is called project work

13. Processes and Projects • Aims, objectives, goals… are achieved by processes and/or projects • Business process (or method) • A collection of related, structured activities or tasks that produce a specific service or product for customers (external or internal) • Business project • A collaborative enterprise, frequently involving research or design, that is carefully planned and executed to achieve a particular aim • Processes are repeated and ongoing • Projects come into existence to address a specific problem or issue and then come to an end • Social networking within and outside the enterprise is blurring the distinction, which is still valuable however

14. Managing projects - 1 • A project can be defined as • A temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service or result • A management environment that is created for the purpose of delivering one or more business products according to a specified business case • The project objectives define target status at the end of the project

15. Managing projects - 2 • A project therefore needs • Objectives • Plan • Execution • Evaluation • The evaluation (measurement) occurs at the project closure but also by continuously monitoring and evaluating during the execution of the project • Projects may be huge (build the Channel Tunnel) or they may be small (build an en-suite bathroom) • Smaller projects: • Don’t generally need complicated software like Microsoft Project • But they do need managing – there may be sub-contractors (e.g. your partner!) and there are dependencies between tasks

16. The challenge of organisational productivity • Strassman, Paul (1999) identified an organisational productivity paradox • Increasing technological possibilities raise the hurdles all the time • Although you can do some things quicker… • Overall you don’t get much more work done! • Why? Organisations have to do things better in order to compete with others who are reacting to and benefiting from the same new possibilities

17. Knowledge work • Drucker, Peter (1999) identified better knowledge work productivity as our most important economic need • He went so far as to warn that our long term prosperity and even our economic survival depends upon it • Knowledge work productivity is the measure of the efficiency and effectiveness of the output generated by workers who mainly rely on knowledge, rather than labour, during the production process

18. The challenge of personal and small-group productivity • Individual knowledge workers face a personal productivity paradox of the same kind • Increasing technological possibilities raise the hurdles all the time • Although you can do some things quicker… • Overall you don’t get much more work done! • Why? • Individuals and the teams of which they form a part have to do things better in order to compete with others who are reacting to and benefiting from the same new possibilities • We vary considerably in our efficiency and effectiveness, as individuals and as collaborators • Most of us are not lazy – we just concentrate on the wrong things at the wrong time! • We have to improve, OK?

19. Auditing our processes, projects and information needs • We should audit the way we work and the way we manage our information in order continuously to improve them • Better identification and understanding of the various processes of which we are a part • Better managed projects • Based (in part) on better information management

20. Two Key Productivity Issues • Individuals, teams and organisations need to carry out business processes; they have to Get Things Done: GTD • Allen, David (2001) • To do this, they need to Keep Found Things Found: KFTF • Data • Information • Knowledge • Jones, William (2007)

21. What is the difference between Getting Things Done (GTD) and Keeping Found Things Found (KFTF) - 1? • GTD is about planning your work and doing it, as an individual and in the various teams of which you are part • Teamwork for students: • Teams for coursework assignments • Work or project teams when doing internships • Student clubs and micro-enterprises • In fact, whatever is done in small groups • It includes things like diaries (agendas, personal and shared) and project plans

22. What is the difference between Getting Things Done (GTD) and Keeping Found Things Found (KFTF) – 2? • KFTF is about keeping all the information you need to learn, to work, to live • Lecture notes • Reading lists • Contact lists (address book) • Shopping lists • Recipes for meals • Note that some things, e.g. “When your team is playing football”, can be in either the GTD category or the KFTF category or both

23. KFTF: Keeping Found Things Found • Searching is not always the best way to find things – if you have already found them and kept them organised • So we make lists (and lists of lists), such as: • Shopping lists • Websites, perhaps using Google toolbar to store bookmarks on the Web • Bibliographic references • Further reading: Jones, William (2007)

24. Classifying and tagging things • Classification schemes: giving names to parts of lists • You can use simple keyword classification schemes, or more complicated classification schemes such as those used by libraries • Recently, social networking sites have introduced tagging. Such sites include: • Reddit • Digg • Del.ici.ous • Semantic network services may well be the next generation: • Radar Networks Twine

25. Classification versus tagging • Classification decides where things are in a strict tree-structured hierarchy • Advantage: it’s easy to find something because it can only be in one place (or, of course, nowhere) • Disadvantages: • Complicated, especially when more than one person classifies • Unrealistic – Fred is both a professional footballer and a town councillor • Tagging permits the same thing to be found via different routes • But its anarchic! • Errr… both are needed

26. Computers and productivity • Computers can be used to • Store and manage information • Represent and manage knowledge • Computers can be used to improve efficiency • This was the original justification for introducing computers into businesses from the 1950s onwards • Computers can be used to increase effectiveness • “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” • Peter F. Drucker

27. Business information systems - 1 • Most organisations identify and procure computer-based information systems • “Information systems are the means by which people and organisations, utilising technologies, gather, process, store, use and disseminate information” (UK Academy for Information Systems definition)

28. Business information systems - 2 • These systems generally support the main ongoing processes of the organisation • Example: in a school or university • A student resource planning system supports the assessment process • A learning management system (LMS) or virtual learning environment (VLE) supports the teaching and learning process • These are examples of large, corporate information systems

29. Work Systems • Alter (2002) defined a Work System as: • A system in which people and/or machines perform a business process using resources (e.g., information, technology, raw materials) to create products/services for internal or external customers

30. Information Systems • Information System = a work system that processes information, thereby supporting other work systems • An Information System processes data: • Capture (input) the data • Transmit • Store • Retrieve • Manipulate – calculate, collate … • Display

31. Information Data Data Processing System Source Client Store Data Retrieve Data Database Business Information System

32. How to store data - 1 • Data is typically stored in files • E.g. Word documents, Excel spreadsheets • But sometimes in databases • E.g. Access databases • Word, Excel and Access are programs included in the Microsoft Office suite that enable users to create, update and delete data

33. Office productivity suites • An office suite is a software suite (collection of component programs) intended for use by people like clerical staff and knowledge workers • The components are generally distributed together, have a consistent user interface and usually can interact with each other • Best-known current examples of office suites are Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org

34. What do they do?Office suite functionality • Focus on the production of documents of various kinds • Also offer various tools for managing and sharing personal information; the facilities typically include: • Word processor • Spreadsheet • Presentation program • Database • Graphics suite • Messaging and email client • Many people use general office applications such as spreadsheets (Microsoft Excel) and relational databases (e.g. Microsoft Access) specifically for personal and small-group information management

35. How to store data - 2 • Data is typically stored in tables: two-dimensional structures • In MS Office terms: • Word tables (also PowerPoint) • Excel worksheets • Access tables • Tables can be linked, adding a third dimension • In MS Office terms: • Excel worksheets • These can cross-refer to each other, using functions like HLOOKUP, MATCH and EQUIV • Access tables are related using primary and foreign keys

36. Note: this slide is a two-dimensional PowerPoint table

37. Outlining in Word – Table of Contents Note that Outlining forces a strict tree-structured hierarchy – a piece of text is classified by where it is in the document Use Outline Mode (in French: “mode plan”)

38. Using Excel for bibliographic referencing

39. Using Access to store details of paper documents - Tables Note that here Docs are hierarchically classified by subject – SubCategory within Category within Context Note that here Docs are hierarchically classified by storage – Location within Unit

40. Using Access to store details of paper documents – typical Form / Subform / Sub-subform

41. Mindmaps – for those who prefer visual representation

42. Group Information Management • Shared agendas – meeting scheduling • E.g. use a Google shared Calendar • Collaborative development of documents • Advanced versions of MS Office offer many facilities to enable this • Shared classification schemes • Keywords • Which may be hierarchical • Tagging

43. Software for personal and small-group information management • There are also a number of computer-based tools, sometimes referred to as Personal Information Managers or PIMs which are intended particularly to assist in the storage and management of personal information, tasks and projects • PIMs are additional and complementary to the functionality of the so-called “office suites” (sometimes “office productivity suites”) • You may need both!

44. Why can’t I manage my work using Outlook, Excel, Access? • You can, to a large degree; but: • Outlook rigidly distinguishes messages from tasks from contacts and doesn’t greatly help you to organise or link them • What you have to do is partly in a task list, largely in your email in-tray! • Using Excel or Access requires you to structure your information very carefully – and most of us will spend more time doing that than we can save! • Not everyone is good at Do-It-Yourself!

45. Ready-made PIM or Do-It-Yourself? • Need a new information system? Bespoke (custom-built)? Packaged? Integrated-component system building? • An analogy:You need a new kitchen - What alternatives exist? • Bespoke (custom-built)? Get A Man In (GAMI)! • Totally customised • Expensive • Depends on a partnership between client and supplier and on accurate transmission of requirements • And then the client changes their mind… • Packaged? Buy a kit - IKEA • Integrated-component system buildingDo It Yourself (DIY) – Brico Depôt, Mr. Bricolage • Put more simply, Make or Buy?

46. Problemsassociated with approaches based on using particular programs in a suite • An analogy: • A carpenter who only uses hammers and nails tackles badly, or not at all, problems which need screws and screwdrivers! • Similarly: • Someone who uses spreadsheets to do what should be done with a database! • Having a good toolbox doesn’t make you a good carpenter…

47. Recap: we MUST manage our information better… • Some information belongs to organisations and has to be managed by them: they procure corporate business information systems • Employers also enable individual productivity by providing PCs together with an office suite • However we all store and manage information (and knowledge) which is personal to us and represents our own competitive advantage – it’s ours, to manage and to profit from • Implies our own PC + office suite + PIM: personal information management

48. Ways of managing your personal information • Write your own PIM program? • Not a sensible option! Life’s too short… • Build your own customised approach • By integrating parts of an office suite, e.g. using Outlook together with Excel or Access – fine for individuals, OK for small groups • But if you and your collaborators need a shared, web-accessible, database, note the arrival of “Situational Applications” – briefly discussed later in this presentation • Select and procure one or more ready-made PIM program(s) • In practice: some combination is common

49. Using office tools for personal information management • Email, contact and event management software (e.g. Microsoft Outlook) • Many people manage what they have to do by leaving uncompleted work as emails in their in-box • Hierarchical outliners (e.g. Microsoft Word / PowerPoint outlines) • Mind-mapping software (e.g. MindManager)

50. PIM and PIM programs • Specific computer-based tools (sometimes referred to as Personal Information Managers or PIMs) have been created in order to assist in the storage and management of personal information • Programs: • E.g. Ecco, EssentialPIM, InfoQube • Web services: • E.g. Basecamp