Calling All Project Managers: Optimize Your Project Setup With OneNote & Microsoft Teams

There are so many factors that go into setting up and managing a successful project, and communication and visibility are two of them.  So how do you setup your project to ensure your team can communicate efficiently and effectively while at the same time promoting visibility?  Maximize your organizations’ investment and use the tools at your fingertips in O365!  Check out how OneNote and Microsoft Teams can put you on the right path.

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Setting up Microsoft Teams
Depending on the security needs and complexity of your projects, you could either create a Team per client and a Channel per project, or a Team per project and a Channel per phase.  For this example, we will look at the former.  This structure grants your account reps and/or program managers easy visibility into their accounts and project status.

Settings:
In the settings for the Team, uncheck the options that allow Members to add Channels, Tabs and Apps.  Too often, well-intentioned members add every Channel or Tab they think is needed without much regard to scalability and flow.  If Teams is being adopted to improve productivity, avoiding sprawl should be a top priority.

General Channel:
Use this Channel to capture and store information that is true across all workstreams:

• Wiki: Use this as a guide; state why the Team exists, why each Channel exists, who the Owners are, call out any libraries, folders or files that are shared externally and add your rules of engagement.  Rules can include where meeting notes and deliverables will be stored, when to @mention colleagues and whether weekly syncs should be recorded.
• Pertinent client information
• Project Templates: Likely, these sit in a SharePoint Library somewhere on your intranet.  Pin it as a tab for quick access.

Project [X] Channel:

• Files: set up a folder for Project Management documents and another for Deliverables.  If appropriate, share the Deliverables folder with project members on the client side.
• Wiki: use this as a place to capture in and out of scope items.  Copy/paste them from the SOW so that they remain front, center and not buried in a bunch of text.
• Pin the OneNote Section Group created for this Channel (keep reading for more on this)
• If you’re using an Excel or Word document for requirements, backlog items, etc., pin it as a tab.  Again, keep it front, center and not just buried in a folder structure.
• Planner: while this is not a project management tool, it’s excellent for capturing operational tasks and deliverables.  Some ideas include tasks for creating the Functional and Design Spec documents, User Acceptance Test scripts, as well as booking kick-off and project close meetings.

Setting up Onenote

Section Groups:
For each Channel in your Team, create a corresponding Section Group in your Notebook.  Section Groups essentially create mini notebooks in your larger notebook, giving room to grow in an organized manner.  Pin each Section Group to its Channel so your team is aware of the structure.

If you’re using OneNote 2016, right-click to the right of the + sign along the top of your notes.

​If you’re using the Windows 10 OneNote app, right click in the bottom left corner where it appears the only option is to add a new regular Section.

Sections
Add Sections to the Section Group for:
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1.  General
You know that sinking feeling, the anxiety that sets in when you’re on a client call and they’re asking why something isn’t done yet?  And then how difficult it can be to find the SOW or WBS in time to respond with confidence?  Make the most of the General Section.

• Use the Insert > File Printout for documents like SOWs, timelines and RACI charts

• Add a page for client contacts
• Add any other pertinent project/client information

2.  Client Communications
It happens all the time, you send an email out with everyone cc’d and the reply comes back to just one person.  Or there’s an email that needs to be kept for record’s sake but needs no response – if you forward this email to everyone as an FYI, then the whole team is saving an email somewhere in Outlook.

• Set up a client comms tab and ask that team members send important client emails to this tab rather than forwarding the email to everyone.
• The Send to OneNote feature is available in both the desktop and online versions of Outlook
  • In Outlook desktop, look for the button near the top right of your ribbon
  • In Outlook on the web, click the 3 dots … for More actions
  • Then scroll down to the OneNote button

3.  Meeting Notes
Rather than chasing down everyone after a call or clicking open a dozen Word documents to find the meeting notes, create this tab and ask that everyone store their notes here.  Since OneNote is integrated with Outlook, after you create a new page, you can add the meeting details to dynamically populate everyone who’s invited as well as any information stored in the body of the invite.

• Create a blank page in your Meeting Notes section and use the Meeting Details button.  In OneNote 2016, this is on the Home tab.  In the Windows 10 app, it’s on the Insert tab.
• Add all your notes and click Email Page to create an email that automatically adds everyone to the ‘To’ line, auto-populates the subject line and adds your notes to the body.  Note: The Email Page button connects to Outlook only from OneNote 2016.  If you’re using the Windows 10 app, the Email Page button opens your Windows 10 email client.  If you want to use this feature, you’ll want to connect your work account to your Windows 10 email client.

Page Templates:
If a lack of structured notes is plaguing your team, consider creating page templates that correspond to each Section.  As of this writing, templates can only be created in OneNote 2016 but can be utilized in the Windows 10 app once built.

• Meeting Notes
  • In the Meeting Notes section, create a blank page (don’t add a page title)
  • Add headers and formatting
  • In the Insert tab, click on Page Templates
  • When the right tool pane opens, look down to the bottom right corner and click Save current page as template​
  • Enter a name for the template and be sure to check the box to set it as the default template

Now, whenever a new page is created in this Section, the template will show up.  When you add the Meeting Details from Outlook, it pushes the template down the page and retains the structure.

A unique Page Template can be set as the default for every Section.

Next Steps
We’ll be covering more best practices in Teams in our webinar on February 27th at 12pm PST.  Register for the event here!  We hope you can join us; if you miss it, the recording will be uploaded to our site.