Using Project as a 12 month timekeeping system.

[Gigi]

Hello,

We use Project 2003 as a timekeeping tool instead of a scheduling tool, it
is mandated.

Our situation is we have hundreds of individual projects that span a 12
month fiscal year, and work is done sporadically throughout the year until
the "project" is completed. It may be completed in one month or take the
entire twelve months. The projects are assigned hours to complete, from 8
hours to 1500 hours and they will have varying numbers of resources. The
resources apply work toward a project sporadically.

I am having trouble with deciding which task type to use, as well as
duration. The projects are measured in hours. I am obviously doing
something wrong now, because the actual hours worked (protected) are being
moved to the project start instead of the date they were actually worked. I
have the "start on actual date" box checked as opposed to the "start on
Project date" box so I'm not sure where I have gone wrong.

Should I be measuring the projects' duration in months instead of hours?
And which task type would be best suited for this timekeeping scenario?

Thank you so much in advance, I really appreciate all of your help. I have
learned a lot from this board although... obviously not enough!

THANK YOU.

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

You've got a major problem here as you're trying to force a square peg down
a round hole. It is not a timekeeping or calendaring tool; it's designed as
a schedule creation tool, not a time-tracking tool. It tracks work,
certainly, but in the context of comparing actual performance against
scheduled performance. Without something scheduled, there's nothing for it
to track.

Task type is irrelevant as it only affects what happens when you edit a
resource assignment. Work = Duration * Units and Project will ALWAYS keep
this identity true, without exception. In this equation you can mark any
term as the constant by specifying the task type, edit one of the remaining
terms, and Project recalculates the third term. Which is "correct" depends
entirely on the nature of the work and the reason for making the edit and a
given task's task type can change many times over the course of the project
schedule development process.

What you are calling "projects" ... are they sequences of tasks resulting in
a single deliverable that is indepdent from the other project's outputs or
are they tasks in a larger project where they all contribute to the final
result?

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

Don't be too "ashame" about your way to use Project, it is frequent enough.
How do you enter this actual work? Through Project Server? If yes, which
method? If not server, How else?

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[Gigi]

You've got a major problem here as you're trying to force a square peg down
a round hole. It is not a timekeeping or calendaring tool; it's designed as
a schedule creation tool, not a time-tracking tool. It tracks work,
certainly, but in the context of comparing actual performance against
scheduled performance. Without something scheduled, there's nothing for it
to track.

Task type is irrelevant as it only affects what happens when you edit a
resource assignment. Work = Duration * Units and Project will ALWAYS keep
this identity true, without exception. In this equation you can mark any
term as the constant by specifying the task type, edit one of the remaining
terms, and Project recalculates the third term. Which is "correct" depends
entirely on the nature of the work and the reason for making the edit and a
given task's task type can change many times over the course of the project
schedule development process.

What you are calling "projects" ... are they sequences of tasks resulting in
a single deliverable that is indepdent from the other project's outputs or
are they tasks in a larger project where they all contribute to the final
result?
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Hello,

We use Project 2003 as a timekeeping tool instead of a scheduling tool, it
is mandated.

Our situation is we have hundreds of individual projects that span a 12
month fiscal year, and work is done sporadically throughout the year until
the "project" is completed. It may be completed in one month or take the
entire twelve months. The projects are assigned hours to complete, from 8
hours to 1500 hours and they will have varying numbers of resources. The
resources apply work toward a project sporadically.

I am having trouble with deciding which task type to use, as well as
duration. The projects are measured in hours. I am obviously doing
something wrong now, because the actual hours worked (protected) are being
moved to the project start instead of the date they were actually worked.
I
have the "start on actual date" box checked as opposed to the "start on
Project date" box so I'm not sure where I have gone wrong.

Should I be measuring the projects' duration in months instead of hours?
And which task type would be best suited for this timekeeping scenario?

Thank you so much in advance, I really appreciate all of your help. I
have
learned a lot from this board although... obviously not enough!

THANK YOU.

 

[Gigi]

Thanks so much for saying that! I have learned so much from these boards but
I WAS embarrassed to post my question and out myself as the Microsoft Project
Imposter that I am...

We do use Project Server, and I have the staff of 50 entering their actuals
through timesheets.

I have gone through everything trying to figure out why their actual work
protected is moving to the start of the project date and it is driving me
mad. I am obviously missing something. I can see WHEN it is happening - for
instance if that Task duration is say 24 hours and the Project's start date
was October 1st - When the staff member puts in 20 hours of actual work on
October 20th; Project is moving those 8 hours back to October 1st. Thus, the
Actual Work Protested is not acurate and since we use this primarily for
timekeeping that is what I track.

Thanks again!

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

This leaves my question... which method of actuals do you use in Server?

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[Gigi]

The staff enters their actuals through Project Web Access timesheets, is this
what you mean by "which method"?

I have four individual Project databases assigned to each employee, 1)
Attendance exceptions, 2) Administrative Tasks, 3) Special Programming
Projects 4) Routine Programming Projects. Their timesheets/actuals entered
are a combination of these four.

Thank you.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

There are 3 ways to enter actuals through PWA: Percent complete, Actual
Work/Remaining Work and timephased work. There is a Project Server option
which one(s) is (are) to be used.
Wih the first two methods Project will register the actual work from the
start of the task.
That is why I need to know the method chosen.

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[Gigi]

Thank you for clarifying Jan. We enter the timephased work through PWA.

Sorry for my delay in replying to your question - we are a government entity
preparing for Tuesday's election... whew!

Thanks again,

Gigi

 

[Leon Milbeck]

Jan
We are in the same boat as Gigi.
We have a Dev team that is asigned work by tasks in Project.
We have a Support Team that performs work for customers over the year:
1. Support
2. Install/Upgrades
I have created a project with the following
Customer 1 - Support
Customer 1 - Install/Upgrades
....
We want to track work done over the year for each.
We have the users enter in time (PWA) at the timesheet and import them into
tasks.
Tracking Method = Hours of work done per period.

The challenge is the settings in the Customer project.
I now have tasks ending in 2032.

Thanks
Leon Milbeck