Timesheet Setup


Select the method of time reporting your organization wants to use and configure it for your organization's specific needs. Timesheet setup can be performed as follows:

1.

In PWA, select the Admin tab.

2.

Select Customize Project Web Access.

3.

Select Tracking Settings under Customization Options.

Specify the Default Method for Reporting Progress on Tasks

Three choices are available under the heading Specify the Default Method for Reporting Progress on Tasks: Percent Complete, Actual Work Done and Remaining Work, and Hours of Work Done Per Day or Per Week.

  • Percent Complete Resources report the percent of work complete per task between 0% and 100%.

  • Actual Work Done and Remaining Work Resources report the actual work done and the work remaining to be done on each task.

  • Hours of Work Done Per Day or Per Week Resources report the hours worked on each task during each time period.

NOTE

If you choose Managed Periods, only Hours of Work Done Per Day or Per Week can be selected.


Lock Down Defaults

Lock Down Defaults allows the systems administrator to choose whether project managers can change the default method for reporting progress or must comply with the default method. To ensure timephased data accuracy across all projects, it is recommended that the Force Project Managers to Use the Progress Reporting Method Specified Above for All Projects radio button be selected. Data integrity is an important aspect of an Enterprise Project Management (EPM) system and should not be compromised for the sake of project management comfort.

Time Period Settings

Select the start day for your reporting week in the Week Starts On window. Next, determine whether you want to use managed periods:

  • Non-Managed Periods Allow Project and PWA users to update actuals.

  • Managed Periods Allow only PWA users to update actuals during open periods.

Non-managed periods allow for the input of actuals in both the schedule in Project Professional and through the timesheet feature of PWA. Managed periods restrict actuals to come only from the PWA timesheets. If actuals are altered directly in the schedule, a warning appears that the actuals are not in sync with the database. If you choose to sync the actuals, the timesheet data overwrites the altered actuals in the schedule. An out-of-sync condition can exist, but the message appears each time the project is written to the database. To maintain an out-of-sync condition, the project manager must deny the sync request for the life of the project.

If Managed Periods is selected, the administrator must manually open the Customize Project Web Access, Tracking Settings each timesheet period, create a new period, and then close the previous period. Usually several periods are open, which means that a user can alter the timesheet. After a period is closed, the timesheet is locked from changes with the exception of users who have Adjust Actuals permissions. The Open period is a floating window of alterable timesheets usually about four to six weeks. As a new period is created and an older one closed, the four to six week window floats through the calendar turning on and off timesheets available for entering actuals.

Select the Weekly or Monthly radio button and specify the number of weeks spanned to set the Display on Resources timesheets. This setting should be set to the standard for time reporting in your companythat is, each week, every two weeks, and so on.

Next, select the radio button for how you want the time entered on the timesheet:

  • Resources Should Report Their Hours Worked Every Day.

  • Resources Should Report Their Total Hours Worked for a Week.

  • Resources Should Report Their Total Hours Worked During the Period Set Above.

Each of these settings selects a different behavior for the resource timesheet. Usually, the Resources Should Report Their Hours Worked Every Day is the most accurate. In this state of accuracy, daily actuals are placed directly into the timephased data in the Project Professional schedules as reported. Under the other two conditions, Project Professional contours the time entry across the defined period, and the daily timephased data is calculated and may be inaccurate. Let's assume that you have an 8-hour task to report this time period, and you worked all day Tuesday to accomplish it. On a daily reporting timesheet, you would put 8 hours on Tuesday and, when the timesheet was processed, there would be 8 hours on Tuesday in the timephased data in the project schedule.

If you reported the 8 hours in the other two methods, the 8 hours worked on Tuesday could only be reported as a lump sum for the task and would not reference Tuesday. Under this condition, Project Professional would average (or flat line contour) the 8 hours across the period of a five-day work week and put 1.66 hours worked for each day. The information is still true but less accurate than daily reporting.

Now select the maximum number of hours that can be entered per day for a single task. A zero is used for no limit. If your organization has a limit, it can be imposed here.

Time Period Considerations

How your organization currently captures project actuals needs to be considered when selecting the time period settings in Project Server 2003. How you capture actuals today and how you want to capture them in the future will become part of your project management culture. Remember, you may be trying to change the project management culture in your organization, and you will be affecting human behavior. The speed of adaptation will be directly proportional to the magnitude of the changes for each individual user.

Although the most accurate actuals capture method is hours per day, your organization may not be ready for the behaviors necessary to capture information at this level of accuracy. It may be necessary to plan a gradual movement toward actuals by day. You may first require % complete reporting for some period of time because this may be the least intrusive to the current culture. As the need for more accurate data drives organizational behavior, you may want to progress to the hours per period reporting. And finally, after careful consideration, move to hours per day reporting.

These methods must be carefully weighed against your current culture before deciding how much change your project management culture can manage. The success of an Enterprise Project Management installation may well depend on the thoughtful consideration of human behavior and culture change necessary to move your organization forward.

Define Current Tasks

This selection is sometimes called the "look ahead" for tasks. That means that a timesheet set to view current tasks sees all active assignments for this period plus the future tasks defined by the look ahead number. So, for instance, if the value is set to 10 days, the resource would see all tasks that should be done this week plus any incomplete tasks plus tasks 10 working days into the future. Choose the look ahead number correctly for your organization. The default is correct for most organizations.

Select Save Changes, and the Tracking settings are complete.

If you choose not to use timesheets, follow these steps:

1.

In PWA, select Server Configuration.

2.

Select Deny for all task-related permissions. The timesheet will not display at all for your organization.

You decide how your organization wants to reflect task completion directly in your Project Professional schedules.



    QuantumPM - Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 Unleashed
    Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 Unleashed
    ISBN: 0672327430
    EAN: 2147483647
    Year: 2005
    Pages: 227
    Authors: QuantumPM LLC

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