Patent ID: 7801914

Claim:
A method for collecting information, comprising: receiving, from a user, an input that identifies a specific situation encountered by the user at a particular point-of-use within a work environment; responsive to receiving the input, identifying, by a processor unit, a context for the specific situation encountered by the user, wherein the context is associated with a value in a list of values; determining, by the processor unit, whether a template that matches the specific situation encountered by the user is stored in a database having a plurality of templates using the value associated with the context identified for the specific situation, wherein each template in the plurality of templates is associated with at least one value in the list of values; responsive to a determination that a template that matches the specific situation encountered by the user is stored in the database, selecting, by the processor unit, the template that matches the specific situation and opening the template at a computing device at the particular point-of-use; responsive to a determination that the template that matches the specific situation encountered by the user is not stored in the database, dynamically creating the template that matches the specific situation encountered by the user prior to opening the template at the computing device at the particular point-of-use; interpreting, by the computing device at the particular point-of-use, the template to generate queries presented to the user, wherein the queries are designed to extract desired information from information related to the specific situation, the information related to the specific situation including the desired information and extraneous information, wherein the specific situation is encountered by the user during an analysis project, and wherein the desired information relates to a task performed by the user as part of the analysis project; the computing device at the particular point-of-use receiving from the user, responses to the queries, the responses including the desired information; the computing device at the particular point-of-use generating a completed template including the desired information based on the responses; and the computing device at the particular point-of-use submitting the completed template to an information management system.