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-   OmniFocus 1 for Mac (http://forums.omnigroup.com/forumdisplay.php?f=38)
-   -   Wish: Delegation workflow (http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=3952)

jolepabo 2007-06-25 05:27 AM

Wish: Delegation workflow
 
Dear Omni Team,

One feature that I really expect in such application is some kind of advanced task delegation workflow ... Like I delegate, the person receive (via mail, I guest this is the easier) the task, and we keep synchronizing the task avoiding unnecesary followups until the task is complete ... a little bit like with iCal and invitations (I like the notification inbox in iCal to see that I have unprocessed notifications about some events) ...

We are a small team of consultants working widespread in the world (well at least Europe) ... Having staff meetings or coordination meetings is very complicated for us, and very expensive ...

Is it on your plans ?

BwanaZulia 2007-06-25 06:03 AM

This seems like a little more on OmniPlan side of features.

BZ

jstrat 2007-06-25 07:17 AM

Had to register to weigh in on this one! :o)

I think you are partly right BwanaZulia, however its a mater of scale.

I think both applications would benefit significantly with the abillity to delegate tasks.

I see OmniFocus or any GTD app as a way to dump all my tasks or tasks I generate. As we all know part of the idea is to get it out of our heads and into a system. So it would seem perfectly natural for me to think...

"I need fred to do X as part of this project I am working on"

Enter it into OF then click delegate and send it off to Fred to do... the item would then be in some pending state waiting for a completion notice back from Fred.

OmniPlan is just a scaled up version. I am co-ordinating a plan for an entire multi-resourced project, having OP delegate the tasks out to the resources would be one less thing for me to do, and if they are using OF at the other end as well - all the better!

My 2p worth! Might change my mind once I get access to OF.. should be in the next batch of invites given the date I registered... Omni just couldn't have done an extra day in the last run... they just had to make me wait that bit longer! Ever had one of those weeks, read the update about invites... "..last batch brings us up to all who registered before..." NoooOoooooOoooOoooo!

Mario.Batz@cern.ch 2007-06-25 07:36 AM

Hi,

well for me the line between delegating small tasks and managing bigger projects is thin. So I would rather see a closer integration with OmniPlan rather than the iCal type send a task off to someone else.

I got plenty of delegated tasks to follow up on different projects with deadlines. So far, I use OF, but there are definitely features in OP that would make that more efficient, if linked back to OF (e.g. managing ressources across projects, see conflicts with deadlines etc.)

Cheers

Mario

BwanaZulia 2007-06-25 10:17 AM

I think the difference is that OF is for personal productivity and planning while OP is for groups.

Delegation, for me, falls into groups.

in GTD, if you ask someone to do something, you put it in your project as "Waiting for"

BZ

jolepabo 2007-06-25 11:24 AM

OP is for project planning ... Delegation doesn't mean Pert and Gantt charts ...

jstrat 2007-06-25 02:02 PM

[QUOTE=BwanaZulia]in GTD, if you ask someone to do something, you put it in your project as "Waiting for"

BZ[/QUOTE]

Ok thats fine, but from a making it easier to delegate point of view. To be able to enter a task then click 'delegate', have the task sent off through Omni wizadry to that person and have the task marked as 'waiting for' in my project is a nice way to work. To then have a response come back through some more Omni wizadry to mark the task as complete when its done would be even better.

My review process would show it as a waiting for task (and hopefully who its been delegated to) so I can follow up with the person if needed.

For me its one less thing to worry about... Enter task that needs to be delegated - then forget to delegate it. Thats the risk with current systems for me. Then again it might be that I am just not doing the GTD thing properly yet and that when I do, delegation won't get forgotten. Until then having OF able to do it when I think of it would be good.

alangutierrez 2007-06-25 05:00 PM

Delgation / Waiting
 
Waiting is part of GTD, isn't it. There are things that you simply must wait for. Like to see what projects are in a waiting state. I'd like to get as many tasks into a waiting state, a view of my tasks that would tell me which ones are close to a stage where I'm waiting on someone else. Chances are if I'm one next action away from waiting on someone else, then someone else is waiting on me.

If the social aspect of work is going to be relegated to OmniPlan, GANTT and PERT charts, then I don't know how I'm going to trust the system to help me manage my obligations to others (which is how I've come to view my work).

alangutierrez 2007-06-26 04:13 AM

Delegation and Waiting How To
 
To answer my own question, I did create a waiting context. At the point where I'm waiting for someone to reply or take action, I add a task called "Wait for so-and-so to respond to request for comments on brochure copy." Not I can work on projects until the ball ends up in someone else's court.

Weasel 2007-06-26 01:39 PM

I think the idea of delegating in OF has its merits. If the person that a task is delegated to has OF as well they will have it show up in their Inbox. When they finish they just report back and your project gets 'activated' again.

This should be possible with files attached to mail messages that will carry the info. Click the attachment and it does its omnimagic...

So if your co-workers (or whoever-else is involved in a project) use OF as well, it might be a good way to streamline some workflows.

Somewhere in version 1.x this would be a very nice feature...


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