Impact of not using timesheets at all

[kahuna]

We are in the process of implementing project 2007 and are considering
whether we can avoid the timesheet portion of the system. As it is, the
project team members can click on their individual tasks from "My Tasks" and
pull up the 'Assignment Details' page, which will allow them to enter time
they utilized on a daily basis to complete that particular task. When this is
saved, it sends a task update to the Project Manager to approve and update
the Project Plan.

While I personally would like to see the use of the timesheet feature, there
are some concerns that it is too complicated and creates lot of work for
employees who are already overloaded. If we need only to track number of
hours being used by team members (all department employees) for various
projects, why do we need to use the Timesheet feature at all? For capturing
non-project related work, we are creating a Project Schedule that is labelled
'Operations' to include only one line task items such as small fixes,
customer calls, team meetings and the like. With this, we feel we can cover
most of the work related time.

Are there any issues in not using the Time keeping module in Project 2007?
From what I understand, the timesheet module and project tracking module are
independent of each other. But I need some expert opinion and the pros and
cons of using and not using the timesheet.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Kahuna --

Based on your description, I think you DO NOT need to use the My Timesheet
functionality. And by NOT using it, you will simplify the lives of everyone
who uses Project Server 2007! If you do not use the My Timesheet
functionality, then the only limitation is that your users CANNOT submit
planned Administrative time, such as vacation, to their calendars in the
Enterprise Resource Pool. Instead, someone (such as the Project Server
administrator or a designated person) would need to put planned Vacation
onto a resource's calendar manually by opening the Enterprise Resource Pool
and checking out the resource for editing.

If you want to totally disable and then hide the My Timesheet functionality
in Project Server 2007, refer to the following FAQ:

http://www.projectserverexperts.com/ProjectServerFAQKnowledgeBase/Disable My Timesheet.aspx

Hope this helps.

 

[Gary Chefetz]

Kahuna:

Based on what you told us, I can't be as certain as my colleague on this
matter. How important is the actual work record to you? Do you need this for
payroll, bonuses, or for determining capitalization of software projects?
These are all reasons why you might choose to use the timesheets, because
you cannot preserve the actual work record by entering through My Tasks.
Unless you lock down the system by forcing all updates through PWA, project
managers can do things to project plans that change the actual work record
and when that gets published, it can overwrite the data entered by
resources.

You can implement the free Tied Mode solution to make the timesheets a
single point of entry so that users do not have to enter and submit, then
import and submit again. Another technique is to have the resources enter in
My Tasks and export to the Timesheet before submitting to the PM. This is
tantamount to copying over the data so that you have it for future
reference. You can also protect actual work in the system but if your PMs
are not skillful with Project, they'll be struggling with this lockdown.

 

[kahuna]

Gary thank you for that critical insight. I will need to clarify this
requirement further, but my initial understanding is that timesheet data is
not currently submitted to payroll but managers do want to know on a weekly
basis as to what their direct reports have been working on/or would be
working on. So a list of tasks and number of hours spent by day and week is
what appears to be the basic requirement. To cover for non-project tasks, we
are creating an administrative project plan which will capture time on
non-project tasks. BTW this is an org which is brand new to project
management processes and systems..

 

[kahuna]

Thank you Dale for your critical insights below. A major concern now is to
see if we can make this system less complicated to our users who have never
used a project system let alone a combined time and project system. FYI, we
are planning to use an administrative project plan to capture administrative
time and have the resource manager update enterprise calendars accordingly.

 

[DogLBer]

As a person who has mentored an Org thru the process of going from Excel
spreadsheets to using 2007 as a project management tool, there are pluses and
minuses to collecting actual time entry from resources.
A. We dropped using Timesheets except to plan and report Vacation/Sick time.
This works fine and is less cumbersome than both MY Tasks and Timesheets.
B. Reporting time in My Tasks using Actual and Remaining time works well but
requires follow up with resources that some PMs consider less productive than
the % Complete method.
C. Time reported by Resources can be modified in the reporting cubes by the
PM actions and can cause confusion in reports. As Gary has said elsewhere in
his replies, If I may restate, " Know the source of your data". good advice.
D. Task Updates can cause changes to tasks that surprise the PMs. Educate
and mentor your PMs in depth. I spend a lot of time explaining the task tirad
relationship and how it can affect your plan.
E. If your management does not visibly use the data collected and reported
on you will end up with garbage, but that is true in other data methods also.
F. Using this method raises the project management level in the organization
and utimately creates better PMs and processes.

Just one man's sojurn. Good luck.

 

[Gary Chefetz]

Thanks for sharing DogLBer. Excellent post.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

DogLBer --

What an excellent response, based on your real world experience with the
tool! Thanks for taking the time to share your experience.

 

[Kevin]

I've been watching this thread and it's very interesting.

Just to add my own $0.02, the one consideration we had to make at our
organization was; are we going to track every project in Project Server?

We have projects that range in length from 2 years to 2 weeks. We decided
to track the big projects in Project Server, but the little one or two task
projects aren't being tracked. In addition to that, what do you do with
accounting, helpdesk, miscellaneous administraive, etc... types of employees?
Those tasks aren't really project related, they're just overhead costs. We
charge those hours to an overhead job code.

Unless I'm misunderstanding something fundamental, I don't think we could
rely on the timesheet to give us an accurate picture of ALL the work being
done in the plant.

Kevin

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Kevin --

Thanks for watching this interesting thread. Your comments are sage, and I
appreciate you sharing them.