Documenting Project Feedback

Introduction:  When working on a lengthy or on numerous projects, it may be very difficult to backtrack through feedback that has been provided back and forth among various parties. Thus, it can be very easy for miscommunication to occur regarding which specific issue is being referred to at any given time or to altogether lose comments or requests that may have been made along the way. In order to keep feedback organized, the learning activity below introduces one method for documentation. You may choose to adopt or adapt this system to meet specific needs of your particular project.

Activity:

1. Download the Feedback Template (Word file) to your computer.
2. Open the file with Microsoft Word.
3. Save the file with a new file name (e.g., Sample Website Feedback)
4. Navigate the sample website created by Mrs. Smith.
5. Mrs. Smith is creating a new website and has asked you to provide some constructive feedback.
6. Using the Feedback Template, please fill out the following general heading information:
• Subject: This should describe what the feedback is about (e.g., Feedback on Mrs. Smith's Website).
• Date: This field is updated with each revision of feedback.
• Latest Revised #: This field is updated with each revision of feedback.
• Revision #, Date, Reviser, File Name, Description of Change - A new row of this information is added with each revision, with the previous information being retained for historical tracking of revisions. 
• Revision #: Start with 1. Use a convention that makes sense to those involved. You may assign new whole number values with each revision. Or, you may choose to use decimal values for minor revisions such as 1.1, 1.2, etc. Another possibility is using letters for minor revisions such as 1a, 1b, etc.
• Date: For this date field, retain the date associated with each revision.
• Reviser: This is the name of the person who created each revision of the feedback form.
• File Name: This is the actual computer file name of the feedback form to allow for easier searching of versions.
• Description of Change: This is a summary of what changes are included with each revision.
7. Create at least (5) comments with feedback for improving the sample website. Each comment should have its own row in the comment table and also its own number so that comments may be referred to by number. You do not need to fill in the Updates column. The Updates column is used to track any updates that occur related to comments.
8. Save the sample feedback document. This is the document that you would then be sharing with others who may be adding additional feedback and/or who will be making changes based on your feedback.

Discussion:

1. What is the value of filling out the general heading information with the revision information?
2. Provide an example of how the historical tracking of revisions may come in handy.
3. Was it easy for you to determine when to add a new row for each comment?
4. If you were to put too much information per comment row, what complications may this cause?
5. If you were to adapt the feedback template, what changes might you make?
6. Share a situation when you might be able to use a feedback template similar to this one.

Summary:  When working on a very complex project, the amount of feedback that gets exchanged can be overwhelming. When feedback is only tracked through oral communication or through disparate emails or other documents, it can be very easy to lose track of the comments or for them to become lost in translation. Using a feedback template such as the one featured in the above learning activity is one method for organizing the feedback so that people have a common document to reference when discussing and acting on comments that have been made.