I would appreciate your advice on what is the best method to drive utilization when the PM is reporting T&M? PM can hold more than 10 projects and still not be utilized when it T&M ( the hours effort are spreading too randomly- 1hr on task than 10 minutes on another..)
I would appreciate your insights here! Saving Changes...
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Shiran
Not sure what you exactly mean by not utilized when T&M as I assume T&M means time and material.
As consultants, we do manage multiple projects at the same time and we use Harvest to record our daily hours per project which reflect either full utilization or not.
I'm a little unclear on what you mean by "drive" utilization. In most contexts, PMs are handed the projects they will be managing and their managers will be ensuring the PMs are being kept busy (usually TOO busy)?
Each project gets a unique charging code. Actual hours spent on each project are entered into the payroll timekeeping system each day. Non-billable hours, like cleaning your desk get separate charging codes. Utilization = (Billable Hours) / (Total Hours) * 100%
You can also use systems where as you switch between projects, you select the project and a timer starts to record how much time you spent, rather than trusting your memory. When the tasks for one project are complete, select the next project in your queue.
T&M only means that the billable hours are charged to the customer rather than firm fixed price for example, where the customer pays a flat fee regardless of hours spent. Most team members don't even know the type of contract but they still bill their hours the same regardless. Saving Changes...
Thank you so much for your reply! you got me right, I mentioned T&M because when the project is fixed by milestones its much easier to report the hours and be utilized when its T&M it is much more difficult to track the hours. Is Harvest is the tool you recommend for that? Saving Changes...
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
Whatever the contract type, I always track my hours. I have a simple Excel spreadsheet that I use when the client or employer doesn't have a specific tool.
It's good to know how much time we spend on different activities. At one point, you will be asked to estimate the effort to do a specific activity. Without this data you will have to guess. Saving Changes...
Vijay SuryavanshiProject Manager - Engineering| RECARO Aircraft SeatingPlantation, Fl, United States
T&M is Time and material and there is nothing you can do to track except pay for these hours. A T&M contract is ideal when you do not have accurate estimates of the time and cost involved in the project.
For the work hours, what we do is Project forecast (total project and hours included) for the year. Capacity planning (resources available for the year taking into account holidays and sick/personals days). And for each project we develop a detailed schedule in MS-Project. And assign all deliverables of the project as tasks. Minimum one hour for the deliverable. Some are recocurring tasks. The software spits out the critical path and the date of delivery after defining all dependcies and assigning resources. While assigning resources, we make sure not more than 8 hours can be assigned for a person in a day. And we don't assign it on holidays. Also, the software helps in resource levelling. There is really no need to track resource if your project plan is detailed and has a top down approach.
Tracking tasks is micro management and is of less efficiency. And if you really, want to track tasks, use action item for task tracker alone. Saving Changes...
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