I've been writing and using such systems my entire 30+ year career. You
need to cross reference all those things, depending on how the
information is to be used. Some of the systems are bad, I refused to use
them because it took too long to find the items I needed to report my
time against. To be effective, a time reporting system must be really
simple for the user. In our business (software development and support)
a worker is seldom assigned to only one project. All the projects the
user is assigned must be readily available, but no more. The user and
their manager must have lots of flexibility in determining what projects
are shown in the current view. It must be quick. And, by the way, a user
may choose to report his time to more than one project simultaneously.
-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Nathan Andelin
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2009 9:12 AM
To: midrange list
Subject: Do you record time?
If you do record time, what do you cross reference hours spent with? I
suppose that depends on one's work environment - an attorney might cross
reference with a customer case number, for billing purposes.
I could cross reference with the project management database - using
Project ID and optionally, Task ID. Or I could cross reference with
the Work Request database - using Work Request ID.
Workers may be assigned to projects, or work requests. The main
difference between them is that projects are broadly scoped and assigned
to teams, while work requests are assigned to individuals. Either may
be billable, but not necessarily.
Another option might be to cross reference with a personal or
organizational event calendar. Or cross reference with a personal ToDo
item - which anyone can set up and may or may not be related to specific
assignments.
Or you might cross reference with various activity codes, used for
recording paid vacation or personal time or time in a classroom.
I recall a couple former employers who had me punch my time card in a
machine with a clock when entering / leaving the building, but who knows
what they might have cross referenced that with?
You may have guess, already. The next application on my ToDo list is
time-card entry and maintenance.
Thanks for any feedback,
Nathan.
--
This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing
list To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe,
unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit:
http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx Before posting, please take a
moment to review the archives at
http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.
midrange.com
