Phân lượng thời gian

Phân lượng thời gian

TIME GATHERING AND REPORTING Source: QuanLyDuAn – http://www.quanlyduan.com 1Articles TIME GATHERING AND REPORTING In tracking a project, no function is more important than gathering and analyzing the amount of time spent on it. Unfortunately, few functions are as poorly regarded by those who must complete their (expletive) time sheets. It is rare to find a company with a time reporting system that is appropriate for project management, and it is common to find companies that do not ask their employees to record their time in any form. In this section, we will review the purpose of time gathering and the ideal method for doing so. Since the ideal is rarely realized, we will then look at alternatives. TIME GATHERING AND REPORTING Source: QuanLyDuAn – http://www.quanlyduan.com 2Articles Companies that collect employee time have a number of reasons for doing so, including payroll calculations, determining vacation and sick leave entitlements, and calculating overtime benefits such as time banking or additional pay. While these functions are crucial for the financial operations of the organization, they are irrelevant for project managers. These people need to collect time in order to measure actual performance on specific activities against the activity estimates and, in the best of all conditions, to gather revised estimates for the completion of each activity. This requirement means that time is to be gathered by activity, not simply on the project as a whole. Since the estimates are prepared by activity and the schedule is presented by activity, activities are the only reasonable way to track progress. Since daily hours are not relevant to project tracking, a time sheet need not specify days of the week except as a tool to help team members track their hours each day. Tracking by activities has another benefit at the end of the project. It is usually revealing to examine the variation between the estimate and the time actually spent on each activity. By determining where the estimates varied the most in either direction, the project can build up a base of experience that will improve estimating and, ultimately, the ability of its project managers to create plans that are more realistic and more likely to be met. The ideal time sheet also asks each employee to estimate the amount of time remaining for each activity. This is called the "estimate to complete" or ETC. Each week, the time sheets are processed by a time system, which can be as simple as a spreadsheet. The time system produces a report listing each activity on the project, giving the total hours spent to date and the ETC. Adding the hours spent to date and the ETC gives the "estimate at completion" or EAC, which is the number of hours of effort that the activity is expected to have taken when it is complete. For example, if a project activity has an estimate of four weeks, two weeks of which have been spent, and the team member responsible for the activity estimates that it will take three weeks of effort to finish, the EAC is five weeks. The variance between the four-week estimate and the five-week EAC alerts the project manager two weeks ahead of the scheduled completion that there is a problem, allowing time to respond. The process of gathering weekly ETCs also serves as an ongoing commitment by the team members to the completion of their activities. TIME GATHERING AND REPORTING Source: QuanLyDuAn – http://www.quanlyduan.com 3Articles The ideal time sheet system also allows the project manager to control the activities to which various people can post time. The advantages of this are twofold: The project manager can ensure that the people charging time to an activity, and by extension to the entire project, are authorized to do so, and when an activity is reported as complete, it can be closed with no more time permitted to be charged against it. The ability to restrict the charging of time gives the project manager a method of controlling the hours charged to a project rather than having to review and correct time that has been improperly posted. The ideal time system, therefore, has these characteristics: - It gathers time each week by activity. - It gathers estimates of time remaining for each activity. - It enables the project manager to restrict who can record time to each activity. - It provides weekly reports by activity indicating potential overruns. 123doc.vn