job sheets being too vague

[jen m]

I work at a manufacturing company and I am trying to put together project
timelines based on jobsheets handed in each week and it is my first time
working with microsoft project. The problem I am having is that sometimes the
job sheets are too vague (for example "welding - 10 hrs") and I can't put the
hours towards a certain task as I don't know exactly which task they were
working on. I am afraid that alot of hours will be missing from the timelines
and that the schedule will be off. Is there anything I can do to prevent the
project dates and numbers from being way off?

 

[Dave]

If you want greater accuracy in the actual hours captured then that is
what you have to do. Can't your jobsheet specify tasks/projects etc?

The problem here is not to do with Project but the quality of the input
data and you seem to be saying that that is not great. There is an
age-old maxim in software which says "rubbish in rubbish out".

You can measure progress by other means than capturing the hours but
they are invariably are less accurate than recording actual hours. As a
project manager you could get a feel for how far advanced individual
activities are or how much work remains to be done on them by looking at
progress and talking to the team.

 

[jen m]

Yes you are correct in your statement that the data in the jobsheets are not
great. They are however getting better as I have made changes to them. I have
spoken to my boss about this issue and it seems that I am expected to "make
due" with what I have. I was thinking of presenting the project in terms of
project 1 took 5 months whereas project 2 took 3 months. To add to this
dilemma I am doing about 25 projects right now by myself and the projects
began before I started using Microsoft Project so I am pretty much playing
catch up.