Deficiencies of Tasks in Outlook
Alex is also aware of some deficiencies of tasks in Outlook:
- Outlook tasks are delivered by means of emails.
- Once a task has been assigned to a person, that person can accept or reject the task. But if she does neither, the original creator of the task cannot re-assign the task to another person anymore. He is not in control, but has to wait until the recipient acts.
- Even if a task can be assigned to more than one person, group tasks are not really supported.
- One can’t easily express and guarantee that just one person should work on the task (like one wants exactly one flight ticket, not 0 or two).
- One can’t easily express and guarantee that all should work on the task (like sign off a new work procedure).
- One can’t easily receive updates from all recipients on their progress.
- If one recipient has a question that also concerns all the others, they can’t easily share the comments and answers.