Chapter 3: Time Management
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In the POMS navigation tree, you'll find a node called Time, which contains two sub-nodes
for managing time-related information.
The Calendars node allows you to define calendars, for use in projects as well as by users.
The Timesheets node allows each user to create and submit their weekly timesheet,
thus providing an updated view of their progress against their tasks.
When you select the Calendars node, a search screen is displayed. You can search for a calendar
using its Calendar Name. If you leave this blank, a wild-card search is performed, which will
return all calendars. Press Find to perform your search. The search result is displayed in
the table below the search criteria.
Provided that you have the relevant permissions, you can:
- Clear your search criteria and result by pressing the Clear button.
- Create a new calendar by pressing the New button.
- View the details of a calendar by selecting its row in the table and pressing the Details
button, or simply double-clicking the row.
- Duplicate a calendar by selecting its row and pressing the Duplicate button.
This is a quick way of creating a new calendar if most of its properties are the same as an existing calendar.
The new calendar will be an identical copy of the selected calendar, except that the word 'Copy' is
appended to its name.
- Delete a calendar by selecting its row and pressing the Delete button. You will be asked to
confirm this operation.
When you create/duplicate a calendar or view the details of an existing calendar, the calendar is added to the navigation tree,
as a child of the Calendars node.
Provided that you have calendar edit permission, you can:
- Change the Name. No two calendars are allowed to have the same name.
- Specify a From Year, and a To Year value. This determines the
calendar's date range.
A drop-down list to the right of these fields is populated with each year in the calendar's range.
You can view a year by simply selecting it from this list, or pressing the buttons on either side for
viewing the previous/next year.
You can generate a report for a calendar by pressing the Generate Report button in
the application toolbar.
When you select the Timesheets node, a search screen is displayed. You can search for a timesheet
using Project, User, Status, or a date range. Instead of a
date range, you can also click the This Week Only check box to limit your search to the current week.
If you leave these blank, a wild-card search is performed, which will
return all timesheets. Press Find to perform your search. The search result is displayed in
the table below the search criteria.
Provided that you have the relevant permissions, you can:
- Clear your search criteria and result by pressing the Clear button.
- Create a new timesheet by pressing the New button.
- View the details of a timesheet by selecting its row in the table and pressing the Details
button, or simply double-clicking the row.
- Delete a timesheet by selecting its row and pressing the Delete button. You will be asked to
confirm this operation.
You can only create a timesheet for yourself, and not for other users. When you press the New button, the following dialog
is displayed.
It shows your existing timesheets for the last 12 weeks. You can create a timesheet for any of these weeks, if it
does not exist (i.e., doesn't have a tick in the second column). To create a timesheet, simply select an unticked row and
press the Create button. The reason for allowing timesheets to be back-dated up to 12 weeks is
simply of practical nature. Sometimes employees go on long leaves, or work off-site and don't have online access.
In such cases, back-dating is an essential feature. Under normal circumstances, however, everyone should be asked
to submit their weekly timesheet on time. This will ensure that at the start of each week, the project schedule
is up-to-date.
When you create a new timesheet or view the details of an existing user, the timesheet is added to the navigation tree,
as a child of the Timesheets node.
A timesheet is displayed as a spreadsheet, listing the tasks allocated to the user for the week.
For each task, the Project Name, the Task Name, and the user
% Allocation to the task are listed in read-only cells. These are followed by cells for
specifying the effort (in hours) the user has spent on each task for each day of the week.
The Total row and Week Total column are automatically populated when
you enter figures into the effort cells. The last column allows you to enter a Comment for a task.
The tasks appearing within a timesheet are automatically selected by the system by examining every project
the user is allocated to. However, there is always the possibility that the user may have worked on unscheduled
tasks (i.e., tasks not appearing in a project yet). To capture these, you can click the Add Unscheduled Task
link. A blank task row is added to the timesheet, allowing you to specify the unscheduled task and the time
you have spent on it.
You can do the following operations on an unscheduled task:
- Choose a project from the Project drop-down list. If the task is not relevant to
a specific project, choose the first item (blank) from the drop-down list.
- Specify a Task Name. This always appears in italics.
- Specify % Allocation, and time spent on the task for each day of the week.
- Delete the task by clicking the Delete link (appearing after the Comment cell).
Unscheduled tasks play an important role in helping a project manager keep the project schedule up-to-date.
When you submit your timesheet, each unscheduled task, for which you have specified a project, is added to
the project as a proposed task (if you have the project already loaded, you won't see the proposed tasks until you reload
the project by pressing the Reload Tree Node button in the toolbar).
The project manager can view these proposed tasks and add them to the project without
any re-keying. This, in turn, causes such tasks to appear as scheduled in your next timesheet.
This simple and dynamic cycle ensures that the project schedule provides an accurate picture of reality.
At the end of the week, you can submit your timesheet by pressing the Submit button.
A dialog is displayed which confirms the total effort you've spent on each task for the week.
Additionally, this dialog box displays:
- Your Remaining Effort for each task (in hours).
- Total Remaining Effort for each task (in hours). This will be the same as
Your Remaining Hours figure if you're the only person working on the task. Otherwise, it should be
higher (i.e., inclusive of other users' effort).
- Days effort provides an equivalent figure to Total Remaining Effort, but in days rather than in hours.
- The last two columns are editable, allowing you to specify your estimate of the remaining effort for a task
(in hours or days). Once submitted, this figure is automatically reflected in the plan. However, if you have the project already loaded,
you won't see the updates until you reload the project by pressing the Reload Tree Node button in the toolbar.
Press the Submit button to submit your timesheet, or Cancel to go back to the spreadsheet.
Upon submission, the timesheet status changes to Submitted and the timesheet becomes read-only to ensure that
no further changes can be applied.
You can generate a report for a timesheet by pressing the Generate Report button in
the application toolbar.
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