DocMaster - Single Database Document Manager

When I started working with Notes in 1994, one of the first things I developed was a "Help" database. Over the years this has travelled with me and been used at almost every company I have worked at in one form or another. With input from dozens of people the original Help database has grown into a single database document manager called "DocMaster". A number of people have asked me to post the code, so here it is.

Bear in mind that this is NOT a commercial product; it is unpolished working code with some documentation. The database is both the help file, and the template. Email me with any questions.

DocMaster

Document management systems range from managing papers in a folder up to managing libraries of documents. There are many high end document management systems on the market, for example Domino.Doc or Documentum. If you think of these systems as a library, you can think of DocMaster as a filing cabinet. While there are many libraries in the world, there are many more filing cabinets. And if document collections grow to big for filing cabinets, they can be moved into the larger systems.

DocMaster is a "Single Database Document Manager" that is a place to manage collections of loosely related documents. Although DocMaster is structured like a traditional book, you don't read it as you would read a novel. Rather you read it as you would read a technical manual - typically you find the content you want and then do something with it, e.g. make a decision.

Typical Uses for DocMaster

• Corporate policies, procedures and standards.
• User manuals.
• Help documentation for Notes databases.
• Design notes for in-house software.
• All information on a particular project, e.g. a software upgrade. The next time that software is upgraded, all the notes etc. are in one place.
• All information on a particular piece of equipment, including user manuals, repair notes etc.
• A shared collection of links, pdf docs etc. on a particular subject.
• "Living" documents that often change.
• Meeting agendas and minutes.

DocMaster is easy for end users

• It uses a "Book" metaphor with a Table of Contents, an index, glossary of terms and a FAQ.
• It can use the same 3 pane interface as email, and uses folders as email does.
• It supports full text searching of all content.

DocMaster is easy to work with

• It is simple to set up, and easy to customize and includes tools to customize it for common uses.
• There is security, with document owners, editors, authors and readers.
• Work is tracked as it progresses, and you can easily see what remains.
• Audit trails. Tracks who did what, when and why. You can view or recover earlier  versions of documents.
• Highly customizable sorting: by date (up or down), by title or by doc number.
• Templates to control title format, date, author or many other fields. Templates can include content. Folders can be linked to templates so documents are created with standard settings (e.g. sorting).
• Document counter show total number of documents per folder, person, department etc.
• Tracks the size of documents.
• Any folder can have its own help documents, or one help document can be shared amongst several folders. The folder help document describes the purpose of the folder.

Advanced features

• Use Template documents to create documents with the same initial content.
• Add your own document types.
• Use "shared text" to include the same text in multiple places. Update the shared text once, and it is updated everywhere.

IT Management failures

I was very interested to read comments in Ed Brill's blog on a Notes to MS Exchange conversion. Over the weekend Brian Benz  and I were discussing this, and we both reached the same conclusion: The problem with Notes in this particular instance was not a technical failure, but a management failure. Let me explain. If you look at the Microsoft case study you will see that "employee contact information was stored on multiple, incompatible systems". To quote  from the Microsoft report: Mike Cleary, Director of Strategic Technology at RSM McGladrey stated "There was no unified up-to-date corporate phone book on-line, anywhere." Several observations can be drawn from this:

• Users require a Notes account to use Notes. In this day and age I can't see any employee of a firm like RSM McGladrey not having an email account. So all employees must have been listed in the Domino Directory at the very least. There may have been multiple domains (and therefore multiple Domino Directories). Usually this happens as a result of acquisitions. If that was the case, then the real problem was that IT management had never deemed it important enough to consolidate all user data into one Domino Directory. A classic IT management failure to prioritize projects correctly.

• In any company the HR department owns the people data. When people start or leave, these changes are initiated in HR, and then move out to other departments like Payroll, IT, Facilities etc.. The problem appears to be that there was no system in place to manage people information in the Domino Directory - information like an employee's manager, phone numbers etc. What this indicates is a process failure, or put another way, another IT management failure. IT management didn't see the need to put a process in place to keep people data up to date. Yet clearly there was a need, because it was one of the first things that was done when the MS solution was put in place.

• In any corporation People information is very important. While you can store this information in the Domino Directory, most companies have needs that would mean significant changes to the Domino Directory. For this reason they create a corporate directory in Notes. This often starts out as a phone list and grows from there. A good example that I have used in the past is one where users can see the reporting structure, and drill down. See the image below. 

Example of a corporate directory showing drill down. Note the (partial) business card in the bottom right frame that includes a picture.

• Again, IT management never saw the need for a corporate directory or they would have built one. It is not hard to do, in fact it is often one of the first applications to be build when a new Notes installation goes in. For more power, add Sametime to the mix - a trivial development effort with a huge return. It was only when MS (rightly) pointed out the problem, that IT management realized there was a problem.

Both Brian and I concluded that this company has only done window dressing. The real problems are in IT management and a lack of IT processes. Remember that if an IT process is not documented, it is not an IT process. We both felt that unless there was a significant awakening by IT management, the same problems that existed in Notes would re-appear in the new systems.

One thing that I have always maintained is that when you have problems with Notes (or Exchange, or any other similar system) the real culprit is very seldom technical. The real culprit is that IT management is asleep at the wheel.