Tracking Support Time against a specific Application

T

TomL

We are a large IT department doing both projects and support of existing
applications. We are reporting all IT time through Project. Managing
projects is straightforward, but we are looking for advice on support.

We would like to track support time against specific applications. We
have explored several options, but are not satisfied with any of them so far.
We have so many applications that creating tasks for each one is very
awkward.

So the question is:
Is anyone is collecting support hours worked against specific applications,
and if so, how are you structuring project plans to accomplish this.

Thanks.
 
M

mark.everett

TomL said:
We are a large IT department doing both projects and support of existing
applications. We are reporting all IT time through Project. Managing
projects is straightforward, but we are looking for advice on support.

We would like to track support time against specific applications. We
have explored several options, but are not satisfied with any of them so far.
We have so many applications that creating tasks for each one is very
awkward.

So the question is:
Is anyone is collecting support hours worked against specific applications,
and if so, how are you structuring project plans to accomplish this.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Tom -

I have done it using something like an admin plan. We broke the IT
organization down into major groups (Unix, Windows, Network, Security,
etc). Under each of them, we had a number of tasks. The tasks were
set up as Fixed Duration, Non Effort driven. Resources were applied,
initially, at some effort level, but I no longer recommend that, since
it skews allocation reports. Instead, assign the resources at 0 Units
to the task(s). The downside is that when a resource puts in time
against a task, the task will be "complete" and disappear from the
"Current Tasks" view in the timesheet. Just train them to use the "All
Tasks" view. I would also recommend that you initially set the
duration for a fairly short period of time - a quarter or six months at
most. Then you can use the data collected during that period to assign
a level of effort.

Hope that helps,
Mark S. Everett | PMP
 
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