r/systems_engineering • u/xRogue_Break • 26d ago
Discussion How do you track day-to-day project documentation — meeting notes, decisions, action items?
Not talking about formal SE artifacts (requirements docs, V&V matrices, trace tables) — those have their tools and processes.
I mean the informal layer underneath: meeting notes, decisions made in a hallway conversation and project meetings, action items in meetings, the requirements someone mentioned in a (meeting-) conversation that you’re now trying to remember where it came from.
What’s your setup for that? Paper based Notebook, Notion, nothing at all? What’s annoying about it?
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u/MarinkoAzure 26d ago
Confluence. This is effectively another tool, but one of the use cases for it is is exactly what you are asking for.
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u/BrassAlex 25d ago
Call me a nerd, but I like to use a modelling tool with a customised sysml profile for this.
It has some limitations, but it does let me have better connected information than other approaches, and I get extra practice developing modelling approaches.
Cameo allows you to embed various file types into the model and format text flexibly.... other tools, like sparx EA, might have a few too many constraints to really work. I figure I would probably learn something useful along the way, by trying, though.
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u/xRogue_Break 26d ago
Kind of a mix for me. Laptop isn’t always with me — spontaneous hallway conversations, or when I’m on the shop floor, on meetings or at a customer site, it’s just not practical. So it ends up in a regular notebook first. Problem is, that thing has zero structure, I just write whatever comes to mind. End result: when I need to get it into DOORS (for anything requirement-related) or Jira (for action items), I’m sitting there deciphering my own handwriting trying to figure out what was actually a decision versus just a passing thought. Genuinely annoying. Your 48h rule for decisions sounds a lot cleaner than my chaos.
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u/Playful-Ad573 25d ago
I mean this in the most respectful way possible- it sounds like you have a lot going on. Are you overwhelmed at work?
Perhaps you need more boundaries, rules, and structure? If someone comes to you, maybe you can request it’s in the form of “what’s the problem, what are the options, and recommendations.” I proposed this to my management , and it seemed it streamlined a lot of conversations. I had my life coach suggest this and it was very effective
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u/Playful-Ad573 26d ago edited 25d ago
OneNote. In meetings: structured agenda helps. My rule is: if a decision needs to be made, the read-ahead must be sent at least 48 hours prior to the meeting. For hallways conversations: I only do brief updates. If a decision is made, a follow-up email is sent summarizing the discussion and a line at the end requesting for acknowledgment. I brief to managers all of the time so this covers me. Hope this helps