Improving documentation organization for a group of people
November 14, 2019 6:01 PM Subscribe
Are there ways to improve use of Box? Help me troubleshoot my lab's documentation organization.
I work for a large lab that has a variety of people (like 20-25?) doing different stuff: administrative tasks, running subjects, technical stuff, data processing, data analysis, and so on. I'm not in charge of organization or administration for the entire lab but I'm heavily involved in the data processing/technical category. I've tried my best to write up documentation on what my team does and organize it but it's kind of gotten messy.
Our organization provides us with Box and Office 365, so we use Box and Word/Excel/Powerpoint Online very heavily. What we have for our documentation right now is a bunch of Word documents and Powerpoints in folders on Box. There's not much order as to who gets access to what folder - it's kind of become "Oh you don't have access to one of the Important Folders yet, I'll add you" and for less important things, "this document isn't up there yet, let me add it to a new folder and share it with you." It's added up to so many different folders of various things and it's difficult to keep track. I have about 5 pages of Box folders of various things shared at different times, and only a couple of those contain documents that could be considered "The Lab Manual". I try to organize technical stuff into a single folder but it's about 30 documents and getting hard to navigate. I keep my main Box page organized by most recent date so my technical docs folder falls off my front page frequently.
Someone senior in the lab today pointed out a different lab's single document lab manual that covered pretty much everything someone would need to know as a member of the lab. It would be amazing to whittle down our important Box folders to something like that, but I don't want to put any more burden on the administrative people who already work hard on their own Box Folder of Important Stuff and are used to updating Word documents.
Ideally there'd be some sort of frontend for Box that would let you custom-organize documents and refer to other documents and files - like a Box-based wiki? Or maybe if there was a wiki we could edit pages for in Office 365 and link to Box files from?
I thought about setting up a separately hosted wiki for the lab to use, but I'd have to get buy-in from a lot of people who probably won't use it, plus we have a lot of logins already and I want to avoid adding on another one. Other things we have right now include a Gitlab for code and a very messy and underused Basecamp 2 that is used for some admin stuff. We have new access to Microsoft Teams via Office 365 and I took a look at that, but it's hard to navigate to and just seemed very confusing. That does have a "Wiki" feature but it looked more like a list of text documents, so we'd have to import everything from Box and then start working there which sounds like a mess and everyone is already used to their "Just add it to Box/Just update it on Box" workflow.
And so I ask: does anyone have any ideas on what could be done to improve this setup?
Thanks!
I work for a large lab that has a variety of people (like 20-25?) doing different stuff: administrative tasks, running subjects, technical stuff, data processing, data analysis, and so on. I'm not in charge of organization or administration for the entire lab but I'm heavily involved in the data processing/technical category. I've tried my best to write up documentation on what my team does and organize it but it's kind of gotten messy.
Our organization provides us with Box and Office 365, so we use Box and Word/Excel/Powerpoint Online very heavily. What we have for our documentation right now is a bunch of Word documents and Powerpoints in folders on Box. There's not much order as to who gets access to what folder - it's kind of become "Oh you don't have access to one of the Important Folders yet, I'll add you" and for less important things, "this document isn't up there yet, let me add it to a new folder and share it with you." It's added up to so many different folders of various things and it's difficult to keep track. I have about 5 pages of Box folders of various things shared at different times, and only a couple of those contain documents that could be considered "The Lab Manual". I try to organize technical stuff into a single folder but it's about 30 documents and getting hard to navigate. I keep my main Box page organized by most recent date so my technical docs folder falls off my front page frequently.
Someone senior in the lab today pointed out a different lab's single document lab manual that covered pretty much everything someone would need to know as a member of the lab. It would be amazing to whittle down our important Box folders to something like that, but I don't want to put any more burden on the administrative people who already work hard on their own Box Folder of Important Stuff and are used to updating Word documents.
Ideally there'd be some sort of frontend for Box that would let you custom-organize documents and refer to other documents and files - like a Box-based wiki? Or maybe if there was a wiki we could edit pages for in Office 365 and link to Box files from?
I thought about setting up a separately hosted wiki for the lab to use, but I'd have to get buy-in from a lot of people who probably won't use it, plus we have a lot of logins already and I want to avoid adding on another one. Other things we have right now include a Gitlab for code and a very messy and underused Basecamp 2 that is used for some admin stuff. We have new access to Microsoft Teams via Office 365 and I took a look at that, but it's hard to navigate to and just seemed very confusing. That does have a "Wiki" feature but it looked more like a list of text documents, so we'd have to import everything from Box and then start working there which sounds like a mess and everyone is already used to their "Just add it to Box/Just update it on Box" workflow.
And so I ask: does anyone have any ideas on what could be done to improve this setup?
Thanks!
I have no experience with Box but my disorganized lab situation relies on a series of folders and documents in Dropbox and it also sucks. Here are some things I have implemented as Lab Postdoc that have made some inroads in organization:
1. The PI is the only person who makes new folders.The lab computer has its own dropbox account which can also grant people access to folders. Nobody else makes new folders within the lab Dropbox. As long as you're in the lab, you can grant other people access to relevant folders. This has cut down on random file creation and also instances when someone has left the lab but they're the only one who can invite anyone else to the folders and so clearly the only sensible thing to do is make a whole new copy of that folder... If you don't want to rely on the PI to make the folders, use some sort of shared lab account to make new folders and invite people to them.
2. We have a few Lab Manuals that detail different pieces of our labwork, and they are all stored in a Lab Manual folder everyone can access. There's a "Nutritional Protocols" manual, an "Endocrine Protocols" manual, a "Data Management" manual, an "Odd Lab Tasks" manual, and a "Field Work" manual, etc.. These manuals have come together slowly and started life as a series of assorted word documents in a bunch of folders. I feel like it was worth my time to go through these folders and compile them into documents where we can do some form of version control - I pulled in a relevant grad student to help me get all the protocols and word documents organized, make sure we were getting the most up-to-date versions, etc. - but now any edits and changes occur in one place that everyone can see, and it makes things a little more reproducible.
3. We have a few important shared folders with serious data things. New projects get their own folders (made by the PI) and everyone relevant is invited.
4. There are excel files to document changes to the data and additions to the folders.
5. Graduate students and postdocs have individual shared folders with the PI. I made my PI a dummy folder that she can copy every time there is a new student which has important papers everyone has to read, things like the Occupational Health forms that need to be filled out, an explanation of online trainings everyone has to do. Only the PI and that person can see the folder. I don't know how other people use their folders, but this is where we store ongoing projects, data, notes from meetings, to do lists, etc.
6. There is an "Undergraduate Lab Worker" folder that is shared by all undergraduates volunteering or working in the lab, as well as the PI and anyone who is mentoring undergrads. Within that folder, each undergrad has a subfolder with their name on it. As soon as we get a new undergraduate, I make them a new subfolder that is populated with the undergrad version of the dummy folder from Step 5.
7. We have standardized a lab onboarding process. I have forced my PI to write a "Welcome to my lab" letter (pdf). This lays out the different ongoing projects, includes a contract setting expectations, etc. When new grad students or researchers join the lab, they are added to the relevant shared Dropbox folders (either by me or the PI). When new undergrads join the lab, I make them a new folder in Undergrad Lab Workers.
posted by ChuraChura at 7:43 PM on November 14, 2019 [4 favorites]
1. The PI is the only person who makes new folders.The lab computer has its own dropbox account which can also grant people access to folders. Nobody else makes new folders within the lab Dropbox. As long as you're in the lab, you can grant other people access to relevant folders. This has cut down on random file creation and also instances when someone has left the lab but they're the only one who can invite anyone else to the folders and so clearly the only sensible thing to do is make a whole new copy of that folder... If you don't want to rely on the PI to make the folders, use some sort of shared lab account to make new folders and invite people to them.
2. We have a few Lab Manuals that detail different pieces of our labwork, and they are all stored in a Lab Manual folder everyone can access. There's a "Nutritional Protocols" manual, an "Endocrine Protocols" manual, a "Data Management" manual, an "Odd Lab Tasks" manual, and a "Field Work" manual, etc.. These manuals have come together slowly and started life as a series of assorted word documents in a bunch of folders. I feel like it was worth my time to go through these folders and compile them into documents where we can do some form of version control - I pulled in a relevant grad student to help me get all the protocols and word documents organized, make sure we were getting the most up-to-date versions, etc. - but now any edits and changes occur in one place that everyone can see, and it makes things a little more reproducible.
3. We have a few important shared folders with serious data things. New projects get their own folders (made by the PI) and everyone relevant is invited.
4. There are excel files to document changes to the data and additions to the folders.
5. Graduate students and postdocs have individual shared folders with the PI. I made my PI a dummy folder that she can copy every time there is a new student which has important papers everyone has to read, things like the Occupational Health forms that need to be filled out, an explanation of online trainings everyone has to do. Only the PI and that person can see the folder. I don't know how other people use their folders, but this is where we store ongoing projects, data, notes from meetings, to do lists, etc.
6. There is an "Undergraduate Lab Worker" folder that is shared by all undergraduates volunteering or working in the lab, as well as the PI and anyone who is mentoring undergrads. Within that folder, each undergrad has a subfolder with their name on it. As soon as we get a new undergraduate, I make them a new subfolder that is populated with the undergrad version of the dummy folder from Step 5.
7. We have standardized a lab onboarding process. I have forced my PI to write a "Welcome to my lab" letter (pdf). This lays out the different ongoing projects, includes a contract setting expectations, etc. When new grad students or researchers join the lab, they are added to the relevant shared Dropbox folders (either by me or the PI). When new undergrads join the lab, I make them a new folder in Undergrad Lab Workers.
posted by ChuraChura at 7:43 PM on November 14, 2019 [4 favorites]
Yes- echoing what ChuraChura said- trust me from lots of experience, the missing piece is governance. Someone (you?) must examine your processes, define basic rules about the organization of content as it supports those processes, determine the team roles that map to the different areas of the process, then figure out how to use the features of the product to enforce those rules.
I've found one good way to get results is to start at the end- what data needs to come out of the process? What information needs to be extracted at the end of the project, to demonstrate success? What typical workstreams or business processes need to be optimized so that it doesn't take (for example) 15 clicks to find the onboarding document? Then try to work backwards from there, to ensure that it will be easier to achieve those outcomes when the time arrives.
Define a few repeated scenarios or "user stories" that can be accommodated, so that there's an opportunity to realize the greatest efficiency across the most commonly shared processes. You may have to talk to some of your team to get help defining those pathways, so you can determine the best way to organize and allocate access management control. It will be important to be able to define who can grant access. Giving everyone keys to the car is a recipe for wreckage.
And if you're thinking that it's too late, and the time to have defined all this was up-front... don't. Trust me also, that it's often harder and less effective to establish an information management structure/governance plan in a vacuum. Things change so much over time as the actual work makes its own way, that the teams end up re-working the carefully planned structure multiple times. It's this, practically every time.
Everyone always wants a better filing system. Now, we have so many more ways to get it right (and wrong) because of technology. I wish you luck!!
Different views to information and knowledge management
"knowledge management as a conscious strategy of getting the right knowledge to the right people at the right time. It is a strategy of helping people share and put information into action in ways that strive to improve organizational performance (Chaundry, 2008). Knowledge management is more about organizational culture and changing that culture than it is about information and communication technology. Knowledge management is about creating an environment that encourages using, generating, sharing, exploiting, storing, and transferring knowledge (Koenig, 2008)."
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 2:27 AM on November 15, 2019
I've found one good way to get results is to start at the end- what data needs to come out of the process? What information needs to be extracted at the end of the project, to demonstrate success? What typical workstreams or business processes need to be optimized so that it doesn't take (for example) 15 clicks to find the onboarding document? Then try to work backwards from there, to ensure that it will be easier to achieve those outcomes when the time arrives.
Define a few repeated scenarios or "user stories" that can be accommodated, so that there's an opportunity to realize the greatest efficiency across the most commonly shared processes. You may have to talk to some of your team to get help defining those pathways, so you can determine the best way to organize and allocate access management control. It will be important to be able to define who can grant access. Giving everyone keys to the car is a recipe for wreckage.
And if you're thinking that it's too late, and the time to have defined all this was up-front... don't. Trust me also, that it's often harder and less effective to establish an information management structure/governance plan in a vacuum. Things change so much over time as the actual work makes its own way, that the teams end up re-working the carefully planned structure multiple times. It's this, practically every time.
Everyone always wants a better filing system. Now, we have so many more ways to get it right (and wrong) because of technology. I wish you luck!!
Different views to information and knowledge management
"knowledge management as a conscious strategy of getting the right knowledge to the right people at the right time. It is a strategy of helping people share and put information into action in ways that strive to improve organizational performance (Chaundry, 2008). Knowledge management is more about organizational culture and changing that culture than it is about information and communication technology. Knowledge management is about creating an environment that encourages using, generating, sharing, exploiting, storing, and transferring knowledge (Koenig, 2008)."
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 2:27 AM on November 15, 2019
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In my lab, we asked the IT dept to make us a special lab account that runs a "lab server" with a whole bunch of shared parent folders for all the shared useful information in our lab. New folks get added to the lab server folder as necessary and then have access to all the folders inside it, which helps with access, and each of those folders are organized by topic: lab business and training, standard operating protocols, specific projects, photos and images, and so forth. It might be worth doing something like that within your team, and then you can start using
At the end of the day, though, without buy-in from your team you're not going to get very far. I find that the thing that makes team organizational systems work is a period of either someone up top demanding that everyone get used to working by the same rules, or everyone from the bottom up agreeing that it would be good to work out rules and setting up some time together to make sure everyone is on the same page. It doesn't sound like you really have the authority to make people use a more streamlined organizational system, though.
One thing you can do to make things easier is to start using direct links to files within files that refer to them. So if File A is often useful when filling out Form A, you could include a habitual tag at the end of Form A that points to File A. This is easier if everyone in the same group automatically has access to File A, of course, and it might take some more nagging to get people to habitually start doing it, but getting into the habit yourself might be helpful to kickstart some momentum on it. And if nothing else, you'd be able to use that system yourself.
You can also create a single document with links to important functions, files, or folders which can be included in that big parent folder and shared to everyone. A reference piece like that can be built on over time to create the kind of document your colleague mentioned, but it starts with a list like that--and the more useful you can make it, the more likely that folks will edit it and add to it as people are onboarded and need to find lists of things to do. Mine is derived from the email I used to write when I was handling lab documentation and IACUC approvals and wound up onboarding everyone's undergraduates to get them up to snuff in the lab. Build something like that, add to it as needed, and it will eventually become that single document.
posted by sciatrix at 6:55 PM on November 14, 2019