Re: Do you record time?

Thank you for all your points, Dan. It pleases me to be writing a program to record time because I have say over the user interface, what data is input, what data is output, and how it performs.

Prior systems that worked best for me were ones where somebody else was doing the data entry - I'd just fill out a sheet. However I wouldn't have wanted to be the data entry person. Too slow. Too cumbersome.

What I have in mind is to preload a series of drop-down lists with projects, work requests, calendar items, ToDo items, Activity codes, etc. But only load items applicable to that user. And toggle the visibility of a list, according to the type of input selected by the user. To make data entry as quick as possible.

Sometime next week I may be able to post a screen shot.

Nathan.







----- Original Message ----
From: Dan Kimmel <dkimmel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, February 28, 2009 12:35:15 PM
Subject: RE: Do you record time?

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.