| Time progress status, in Feature Requests |
| |
roland
|
 Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 6:12 am Post subject: Time progress status |
 |
|
|
Hi, i was just wondering if it would be possible to make the progress status bar relate to estimated time over actual time. In this way all the estimated time allocated to tasks is calculated as a total (100% of the project) and the actual time that people put in gets drawn over or under this bar to easily show how much time is left.
This would be really good in the Project view to get a quick visual glympse of how long someone has spent on a project v's how much time has been allocated. Also if someone goes way over time on a task, in the Project view you could see this easily as the "actual time" progress bar would be a lot longer than the "estimated time" progress bar (or i guess if space is an issue the "actual time" bar could get smaller in comparrison to the "estimated bar") |
|
| |
|
 |
Ben
|
| Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 7:29 am Post subject: |
|
|
|
The Progress bar for tasks is already a subjective % complete, it is an estimate indicated by the user when they're posting their time/comments. The Progress bar for projects is simply an average of % complete for tasks, so again its a cumulative and subjective value.
The dynamic flash timeline view in projects is where we show the start/end dates for a task, the estimated effort (hours), the allocated or committed effort (black thin line) and the ACTUAL hours logged by that resource (thin white line).
In addition, in the task view you can use the resource allocation widget to show the users allocated to that task, the committed time, and their logged hours for that day.
So we have a project timeline, and in each task we have a resources committed/spent time, you might ask "wouldn't it be great to tie them together?"
Funny you should mention it (if by proxy!) because we've tied the project timeline and the resources together by introducing the resource timeline in the calendar. This view is like a business defrag, showing your resources plotted on a timeline, with a colour coding display of hours committed. |
|
| |
|
|
roland
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 12:04 pm Post subject: |
|
|
|
Hi thanks for your post.
I do understand how the system works, but I think you've completely missed the point i was trying to make. Everyone i've talked to in my office has said that they don't use the percentage complete drop down and have said that it is completely useless when it comes to tracking time, it's only good at the end of the task or project to flag that it is complete, and could almost be a checkbox.
I think you have to understand that the software needs to be flexible and informative to both a project manager and someone who's merely receiving tasks.
The thing that is really important from a time management point of view is easily seeing how much time is allocated to tasks and projects and how much time has already been spent on them.
A person filling out time sheets or looking at a task on their springboard needs to know not only how long they have on a task, but also how much time they have already spent, and if they've spent too much time the software should flag this.
For example from a project management point of view when you create a new project and associated tasks you set up estimated durations, and the total of all these durations is what you assume to be 100% of the project. As you're going through the project and filling in time what would be great is to see how the tasks and the project are affected by this time, on a large and small scale.
For example if I allocate 8hrs to a certain task and someone actually spend 8hrs on that task then the status (as a time on task status) would show 100%. If someone actually spends 12hrs on that task then it would indicate that they've gone over and spent 150% of my time on this task. This is really good to know especially as a visual, because it quickly shows you instantly that you've gone over time and essentially loosing money.
Also, using colours as an indicator would be good, green for under 100%, red for over 100%. Informing people on their sandbox that they've gone over time on a task (the job manager and task user) could be another useful feature.
Knowing this in terms of the entire project less time could then be spent on other tasks to try and balance it out. This is especially important when you've got a project that's based on a fixed quote, and when you've got lots of different people on different tasks. To know quickly and early that something like the "concept stage" of a project has gone over 200% of the estimated time for that stage is really important when trying to track a project and manage resources.
At the end of the project all of this information helps in planning another similar project. You can see where you've over and under quoted or had too many or too little resources, and balance it out next time.
Essentially what my point is, is that it would be great to simplify things a little and bring all the really essential information together on one screen, and not have to go looking for it. At the moment you have to click too much, back and forward between different views and down into tasks to gather or change any real information.
A simple solution could be to allow people to customise the information that comes up in the columns in the "Projects" and "Tasks" view and also be able to customise the Springboard. So like the way you can add and change different column views in something like iTunes you could add in a column to show "Estimated Duration", "Actual Duration", "Starts", "Ends", or any number of items that would be found at the next level down.
Another thing that would make creating and updating tasks and projects a lot quicker is if you could then edit the information directly in the columns.
Basically, i like the software and can see lots of future potential. I can see the strengths it has for project management but still think it has some weaknesses when it comes to time management and delivering key information, not just to someone who's sitting in the project management chair, but also to someone who may be at the end of a task. |
|
| |
|
|
Ben
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 12:32 pm Post subject: |
|
|
|
Wow! Thanks for the comprehensive reply, you make a number of great points.
As software developers we'll never please everyone, but once or twice a year we conduct a major survey regarding product direction, and also keep studious notes on what functionality the majority of our users want.
These popularly-requested features rise to the top and we do our best within the confines of budget and our own finite resources to build a product that we think you want.
I think its harder than most out there would imagine, but we do our best.
The function of the % complete is there as a subjective completion percentage. It is designed so that if you estimate 8 hours on a task, and then complete 8 hours, you have a secondary measurement of how complete it is.
Spending those 8 hours doesn't always mean a task is complete, sometimes it requires more time, sometimes it requires less. That is as I'm sure you'd agree the nature of project management, however if we automated the % complete I can guarantee you there would be an equally vocal request that it be made subjective.
But it wouldn't be the first we've looked at a functionality and changed it.
Thanks again for the comments, we'll keep looking at ways to improve the software. |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
