Great resources mentioned so far.  Here are a few more thoughts.

Your inventory form will either be comprehensive, or not.  If the former, 
you may capture more than required for your immediate goal but have the 
advantage of building data for the future evolution of your program.  
Downsides include the time required, potential "turn-offs" as some 
respondents/participants may not see the necessity for certain data.  If 
the form is not comprehensive, then you must be aware of how, and to what 
level, the form "cuts" the data.  That cut must be in sync with your 
project purpose, or you will be going back for more information.  That 
will have implications on your project and how it may be percieved and 
welcomed within your organization.

My advice is to take a project management approach and remember that you 
are not simply collecting data, you are imposing a time demand on people 
who have work to do.  The design of the form should also reflect process--
it is not simply a matter of getting the right fields and assuming they 
make sense.  A different arrangement, abbreviations, etc. can be adopted 
for RM staff for whom greater descriptive detail gets in the way.  That 
detail is critical if the form is filled out remotely by knowledge workers-
-otherwise, your data will be skewed by the interpretation of the fields.  
Will the form be input into a database? If so, there are design 
considerations to reduce errors and streamline data entry...has design of 
your database taken the data collection and presentation requirements  
into account? 

In short, there is a lot of good information available to better inform 
the inventory process. And, all of it needs to be considered in light of 
the specific need, and adapted accordingly.  

Good luck!

John James O'Brien, CRM, MALT
IRM Strategies
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