Time delays are a real headache of all software development project managers. They are difficult to predict, no less difficult is to see the early signs of the delay. This issue is even more challenging if the development team is big.

Multiple tasks and interdependencies make manual entering information in spreadsheets, checking for the changes to control the project is an absolute hell. And, frankly, is impossible without turning the whole thing to a mess. Big projects demand plans to be kept up-to date, but they are too complex for spreadsheets method. So it seems really difficult to recognize the signs of a time delay for some task completion.

Here comes project time tracking software. Ideally if it combines timesheets with project tasks, so when the time spent on a task is updated, the status of task completion is updated too. This allows a PM to see project tasks in progress and to notice if there’s something wrong, and a task is heading for a delay. Thus a project manager may deal with the problem, analyzing the reasons and making corrections. There are several different ways of dealing with time delays:

• If it takes place for a first time, it’s a sign that a person working on the task needs help, and the task requires special PM’s attention.
• If the same task is delayed for the second time, it’s a sign for a manager to take active actions on defining the reasons and solving the problem, and, which is important, to prevent the risk of time delay in the future.
• The third delay case on the same task may be the reason to reconsider the project plan asking for experts help.

There is no need to explain why it is so important to react to time delays. But it is no less important to monitor and control the project progress in order to prevent the occurrence of time delays.

Hi!

Productivity is an essential factor for any business, and especially for software development companies. And time tracking is a great tool for measuring efficiency and productivity helping to find out and understand the processes that hinder company’s progress. That’s why it’s so important to choose quality time tracking and timesheet software, customized to answer the questions and provide the metrics a peculiar company needs to analyze.

Below are some questions project timesheet software may help answering to get you clearer idea about what is happening in your business:

• The general time employees spend on their tasks.
• Is their efficiency rate high enough, or there is a place for improvement.
• How are the processes set and managed, and if there is anything that may be improved.
• How you work looks from the customers’ point of view, and more

Time tracking fits to almost every sphere in business, and is widely used in many of them. Especially, when some product development or creation is considered. As soon as there is a need for constant improvement in order to be better than competitors, to deliver services or products faster, there is a need to understand where the improvements should be applied. The information provided by time tracking software is a good way to get needed information.

No project connected with software development will survive without management. Evaluation of the efficiency of the resources assigned to a project can’t be done without proper analysis of time and efforts spent by developers on different tasks. Using spreadsheets with needed data, and do almost manual calculations… well… may be possible for a small project, but will never fit for big and complex product development.

Designed specially to help manage the resource aspect of the project, project resource management software including time tracking tools and timesheets fits small, as well as big and complex projects. No matter, will it be a desktop or web-based solution, when customized for your particular needs it is able to bring value to the business.

This value is not, actually, in making nice reports for presentations, neither it is in more accurate billing (however, accurate billing is essential). The main value of project resource management software is tracking the dependencies, analyzing productivity, and managing available resources the way to improve software development lifecycle processes.

In other words, while not moving the project toward its aim, project resource management tools help to find ways to do this more efficiently.

Hi!

Recently, I argued with a friend of mine about is there any use of Time Tracking tools for TFS, or TFS gives possibilities for time tracking being as is. We ended up in a consensus that we both were right, and while TFS has its own resources, there is nothing negative in specially created TFS time tracking tools.

Today, I’ve been determined to find the proofs for my rightness (for I am not a consensus-loving person, frankly). And, voila, I’ve stumbled upon a blog post at Continuously Integrating blog with clearly formulated statements in favor of me being right.

The question is that Task work items have work remaining and work completed fields, so many people (not only my friend, as appeared) think them to be “a prime candidate for time tracking”

Here are some points explaining why they are wrong:

First and foremost, the goals of Tasks are rather different than being a means for time tracking. Time tracking is something personal, associated with a particular user, while Task means, mostly, a workflow flowing from one user to another as the task is in progress.

Then, “work completed”, being a cumulative value, can’t be associated with a particular date. While time tracking supposes tracking time spent on a particular task on a particular day. Plus, “work completed” may include work of several persons (like developers, for example, working on the same task). While again, time tracking means hours spent by a particular user.

Moreover, for the sake of billing, accounting, and PM’s nerves, it’s more useful to have software integrated with TFS (if a company uses TFS), to track time spent on tasks by each developer or tester, to have the information on billable and unbillable hours, to have, at last the possibility to analyze time spent on different types of tasks, etc. Work items simply can’t provide this.

So, here comes the conclusion. Surely you can crack nuts with a microscope. But why not use some tool designed specially for nuts cracking, while using microscope for exploring the hidden life of bacteria?

Many organizations have understood and appreciated project time software, timesheets, and time tracking benefits like increased productivity, more accurate billing, handy reports on the hours employees spend on tasks and so on.

However, when it comes to the choice of appropriate software, there are some doubts: desktop or web-hosted. While desktop software is quite costly, which may be the main concern for small businesses or start-ups, online project time tracking applications available for a small fee or even for free. What else online project time software provide as benefits, and are there any downsides.

Web-hosted timesheet software has a number of benefits compared to traditional desktop-based installed software:

• It allows users approach their timesheets from anywhere and input their data from any location, using a Web browser.
• Another great benefit when utilizing online timesheet software is getting updates and add-ons in the real time, i.e. as soon as they appear.
• Many online project time tracking software vendors provide 24 hours support.

However, there are certain downsides compared to desktop time tracking software:

• Most of online timesheet applications are limited in features they provide.
• They don’t offer the same level of customization.
• There is a risk of downtimes, which means that your operations are going to be at a halt for a certain period of time.

So, there are both, bright and dark sides. Business needs should be evaluated first to see, what kind or tome tracking software fits better in terms of cost and functionality.

Progress tracking is essential for Agile development. It helps understand whether a team is doing the things right, find tough places in current iterations, and estimate the approximate dates of the release. As one of the backgrounds of agility is increasing efficiency and minimizing waste, time tracking is a necessary part of software development lifecycle. Time tracking powers accurate progress information by gathering information of the time spent on this or that part of the project and showing real project progress.

Many development teams use various types of time tracking, time reporting software, timesheets, etc. to manage Agile projects. Time reporting information allows estimating costs, counting salaries, forecasting the resources required for projects. But this is possible only when the time tracking is well-organized across different organizational units.

Not long ago I’ve met such thought in the web that agile time tracking should only track what is required. In other words, there should be gathered only time tracking data that is just enough to track the project process. Well, that makes sense if a team is focused on a single project for a period of time. Then the actual time spent on each task isn’t as important as velocity in terms of story points (abstract measure with no relevance to actual hours). The latter allows gathering enough information for accurate estimations and profitability calculations. Thus, there is no problem with managing even fixed bids projects using story point estimates and velocity. But still, this makes sense only if done accurately.

And, here comes, probably the main issue with time tracking – there are not so many people who like doing it. I’m sure, almost everyone who has ever dealt with time reporting had such situations at the end of the week (two weeks) when s/he had to remember what was done during the period. And very often this comes out of the imperfection of time tracking software (bad tasks categorizing, user-unfriendly interface, etc.). In other words, software is not so quick and simple to motivate people using it. Actually, it’s a charge of those responsible, to find the software that answers all team’s requirements (well, that’s in ideal world). Anyway, there is a choice, there plenty of tools, starting from TFS templates for Agile and ending with various proprietary and open source solutions.

Time tracking and timesheet software is becoming more and more popular nowadays for it has proved to be beneficial both for small and large companies, for the employers and employees. The market for timesheet software is quite various, so learning it can make one uncertain about what package to choose. To simplify the search, it’s wise to consider budget, business requirements and to approach a question seriously:

1. The first step is to prepare a list of the things you are going to use timesheet software for: billing clients for time recorded by your staff, communicating with payroll systems, enforcing labor policies, etc. Define the functions for which you already have a specific process or policy and decide whether you wish to change your policies to comply with the software or whether you want to pay a fee to customize the software to your policies.
2. Then surf the Web to look for timesheet software providers. Most will offer a free trial or at least an online demo, so you can see how closely the package matches your needs. Make sure you look at packages with processes and workflows for your type of business – buying the packaged version of software meant for your vertical industry helps avoid spending money on customization.
3. Don’t hesitate to contact vendors through the contact forms on their web sites in order to define weather their products are those required for your business needs.

Besides, you can ask others what they use and what they like and don’t like about their software, and look for software reviews on the internet. Considering a vendor you should also consider the things like customer support, warranties, upgrades (free or charged), the number of users, the license and customization fees, etc.

Time management is a significant component of work over a project. Project time tracking, though sometimes is considered to be a pain, in fact has plenty of benefits. Nowadays, finding an appropriate time tracking tool is not a problem, for there is a variety of choice. Good time tracking eases the life of clients and service providers, project manager and staff.

If we speak about software development projects, here are some of the benefits that project time tracking may provide:

• Project time tracking helps bill clients and pay external consultants. Making clear time reports and providing them to the interested parties is much easier.
• An accountant will be able to generate more accurate financials because s/he will have the information to value work in progress. The accurate financials allows viewing company’s financial trends. Watching the trends allows to make decisions early, and not to end up in a cash crunch panic.
• Project time tracking allows keeping tracks of team’s effectiveness and gives the information one may use in the future to estimate similar projects. It can show the areas where the staff isn’t being productive, so they can review their working habits and adjust them to to get more out of a work day in less time.
• It gives the clear view on the time your staff is spending on tasks, and how time is spent. That helps to monitor when your staff is in danger of burning out, or whether you need to expand or downsize your team.

So project time tracking is not only about marking what was done, and how much time was spent on working on this or that task. One of the most important things is the possibility to identify which of those tasks were productive.

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