Timesheets and Task Updates Practices

[CC]

Good day,

I would like to know in general what the best practices are in terms of
using timesheets and task updates in the Project Server 2007 environment.

Is it recommended that team members fill in timesheets and then import into
My Tasks or should team members update task status before creating their
timesheets.

If team members are updating timesheets and the importing timesheet data
into tasks, what type of updates to the project plan should be avoided and
what type of updates should be safe. Will the application be able to resolve
instances where the assignments changes while tasks are in progress and
timesheets have been created but not submitted?

Thank you.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

CC --

If your organization needs to use the My Timesheet functionality to capture
all types of time, then I would recommend the following process:

1. Resources enter their hours on a daily basis in the My Timesheet page.
2. On the last day of the reporting period, resources enter their time for
that day and submit the time to their timesheet approver.
3. Resources should then go to the My Tasks page and import the time from
the My Timesheet page.
4. Resources should optionally adjust Remaining Work as needed and add
Notes to document the reason for the adjustment.
5. Resources should then submit their progress to their project managers.

Regarding updates that are safe and not, the only type of update I do not
recommend that resources use is the Delete task functionality on the My
Tasks page. Otherwise, everything else is fair game, based on your
organization's project management needs. This means you need to decide
whether team members can add a new task from the My Tasks page, or delegate
tasks to other resources. You need to make decisions about these features
before you begin using Project Server 2007.

The biggest problem you will have with the My Timesheet functionality is
when tasks shift during the week, or when a new project is published that
has one or more tasks during the current time period. If a user has already
created his/her My Timesheet for the current reporting period, the Timesheet
data is static as of the moment of creation. Task dates will not shift and
new tasks will not appear automatically. The only way to work around this
limitation is to ask users to delete their Timesheet and recreate it, which
will show the shifted schedule or the new tasks.

Hope this helps.

 

[Mvisscher]

For one of our customers we used the following scenario

1. On a daily bases a project team member updates and submits My Tasks and
remaining work. This has the advantage that a Project Manager is informed on
the progress of the project on daily bases and is able to reschedule if
needed.
2. At the end of the week the team member creates the timesheet and because
the timesheet is new, all the reported hours on tasks will be automatically
be filled in.
3. The team members adds the administrative time on the timesheet (and does
not modify the hours on project tasks) and submits the timesheet.

Please keep in mind that if you use Plan administrative time a timesheet
will be automatically be created for the planned holiday-period. Therefor
this customer will not be using this functionality: the resource manager will
directly modify the resource calender in MS Project when he recieves a
request in an email. This way the Resource Manager will be able the enter a
description in the calender as well.

Marcel
Consultant at www.dsbproject.nl

 

[CC]

Thank you Dale,

We are using the process as you described, although the filling in of
timesheets is not mandatory for all team members. It is interesting that one
of the reasons that they are filling out timesheets (voluntarily) is that the
timesheet offers a week view of all your time, and team members use it to
ensure that they account for 100% (or more) of their hours.

However, at this stage our project plans are not stable and change on a
continuous basis. When a team member imports a timesheet that contains
planned hours that has changed since the timesheet was created, will the
timesheet still import successfully? I started considering to implement
"stronger" update cycles, to ensure that project managers and team members
are not updating data at the same time. But is this really necessary?

What type of updates should project managers not be making after the initial
baseline is saved and the plan publish. Can they change assignments that are
in progress, will the application resolve this? Can they add new resources
to tasks that are in progress?

Thanks for your assistance, it is really helpful.

 

[CC]

Marcel,
Thank you for the reply.

Although we are using the process that Dave described (from timesheets to My
Tasks) we are considering alternative processes. Our project plans are not
stable and project managers apply ongoing changes. Therefor the My Tasks to
timesheet approach might be a better option.

How strong is their information update cycle that they have implemented? Do
they have cut-off dates for changes to be published by the project manager?
Do they have periods where project managers should not be publishing updates
until all team member updates have been submitted? Do they close the
timesheets? Have they disabled the "Import timesheets" function?

I don't want to implement processes or changes to processes that are not
necessary, but I also think if what we tried first does not work, we should
consider adjusting our process.

Thanks again.

 

[Mvisscher]

To answer your questions:

Project Managers do not have periods in which they should not publish their
project. If a Project Manager opens the project he will review and accept any
Task Updates before modifying and publishing the project.

Timesheets periods are closed after a few weeks, when all timesheets have
been approved for that period.

They want to disable the Import Timesheets button, but I do not know how to
do that. So we do not tell the users that this option exists and we clearly
explain the way how to work.

You''re welcome

Marcel

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

CC --

The fact that your projects are not stable is a huge challenge to using the
My Timesheet functionality. If your PMs are constantly changing their
projects, especially in the middle of a reporting period, then I doubt
seriously whether you can really use the My Timesheet functionality except
for administrative tasks. I think your challenge right now is to stabilize
the project management process to stabilize those projects. Otherwise, I
would suggest that you simply use the My Tasks page and forget about the My
Timesheet page. Hope this helps.

 

[Jan]

I've been working on getting project tasks into my timesheet and followed the
suggestion "ask users to delete their Timesheet and recreate it" however my
new task still don't show.

Any suggestions?

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Jan --

The only way to get new tasks to show is to add the tasks manually (if you
know a new task exists) or to delete the Timesheet and recreate it (again,
assuming you know a new task exists). Either way is clumsy at best. Hope
this helps.