Mar 16, 2010
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Why Isn’t Email Good for Managing Issues?
I came across a great question asking about using email to manage issues or tasks.
The short answer is that email is terrible for managing issues and tasks.
Sending or forwarding emails may make the sender feel like the issue is being handled (particularly if its a long email, with many threads and lots of names on the cc line). But in truth, sending or forwarding emails is just a fast and easy way for the sender to get the issue off their plate without investing themselves in the resolution of the issue or accomplishment of the task.
Not Enough Information
1. A forwarded email often does not have enough information or context to convey how the issue should be handled. Even though there may be a ton of discussion in the email itself the sender is assuming
- a) that the recipient will understand the discussion in the way that they do and
- b) that the recipient will understand the senders intent and come to the same conclusion as to how the issue should be resolved.
It is also extremely time consuming for the recipient to troll through the entire email, rather than get clear direction from the sender.
Who is Responsible?
2. Forwarding email has no clear way for the sender to see who is supposed to be handling the issue or task. They just know who they forwarded it to. The next person in line (or all the people cc’d on it) may turn around and forward it to other people.
No Feedback. Just More Email.
3. There is no clear feedback loop on the status of the issue or task with email. While the email might contain a deadline or language conveying urgency, the sender has no clear way of seeing how close to being done the issue is nor does the recipient have any way of updating the timeline on the issue -other than sending more email that then needs to be sifted through to get to the status information.
No Reports
4. It is cumbersome and difficult for the sender to see the status of all issues or tasks at any point in time. They need to search their inbox/outbox issue by issue or person by person.
Incidentally, the same things that are wrong with using email can apply to open-ended project collaboration software or task management systems that work like message boards with multiple posts. Like email, these are easy for people to use. But, they provide limited information for project managers. A manager often needs to spend a lot of time sifting through posts to find information they need to make strategic decisions or to update clients.
People tend to forget about emails once they’re read. OK, for a few minutes or even hours they will remember they have to follow the email up, but it will soon become overridden with incoming new threads/tasks and will be forgotten.
Reviewing what has been delegated through email sucks too. You have to manually dig through all threads to find out what can be closed and what is still open.
Having said that if you work on organization powered by email it is really hard to change people’s habits. You’ll just keep getting tons of emails and you will be expected to answer them all.
Wow. You hit on one of my biggest pet peeves ever in the history of ever.
I apologize now because I’m going to rant a bit. E-mail is evil. It’s evil anyway but in the context of projects, it’s absolutely the worst communications vehicle going. My biggest beefs with it are the following:
1) Ask anybody you know if they have a problem being overwhelmed by e-mail. Most people say yes. Those very same people are often also guilty of saying, “well I sent you an e-mail, didn’t you read it?” Somehow other people being likewise overwhelmed doesn’t enter into the mind of the sender. Somehow, it becomes the recipient of the message’s responsibility to make sure communication was successful, instead of the initiator.
2) Preview windows mark messages as read. When you’re on the phone automatically pressing the down arrow key in Outlook, you’re not actually reading that “omg omg urgent” message. And now it’s marked read so you might not go back to it.
I don’t believe e-mail is an effective means of communication period. In terms of managing issues, I can’t see any value whatsoever for all the reasons you mentioned above.
I outlaw e-mail as a means of project communications on my projects unless it comes from stakeholders, and even then I’m very vocal about not liking it. It usually takes a few times for people to get burned, but the rules are simple and I make them crystal clear: a) if it’s urgent, pick up the phone. b) project members are responsible for making sure their message is understood–if they’re not satisfied their message has been understood, they’re to assume it wasn’t.
For managing issues, each person is responsible for ensuring whatever (non e-mail) repository we’re using is up-to-date.
Okay, I’ll stop ranting now. Sorry for my outburst.
Geoff.
http://edge.papercutpm.com
Thanks for the rant : ) Email is a huge sore point for many people.
Agreed.