I recently started a discussion over on LinkedIn, however I need to reach a bigger pool of experts, so I'm turning to you guys. Here's the link to the original post if you want to go over there and check it out:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/What-are-vi...ee_more-0-b-ttl
For those who don't use LinkedIn, here's the gist of my problem: my department wants to better manage its human capacity, in order to better plan projects, avoid taking on more work when there's no one left to do it, and prevent key people from becoming bottlenecks. I have been asked to find a way to make it happen. However, project management around here just isn't part of the culture, and the obvious answer (schedule projects and operations properly and have people track their time) is going to be considerably difficult to implement.
Therefore, my inquiry is two-fold:
- How do you sell people on the idea of time-tracking?
- Are there any smart alternatives to filling timesheets that would achieve the same level of control over resource capacity?
Thanks for your feedback. Saving Changes...
Sort By:
Peter WrightProgramme Manager| BAE SystemsSouthport, Merseyside, United Kingdom
Julien,
The business case and benefits I think you are trying to capture go beyond just the projects you are running/in progress. Therefore you need to understand and capture the problem statement for your company - Identify the key risks within Arkadin if you do not book /manage and track key resources time
Given I think Arkadin is a private company (could not find a share price)
An example of your problem could be
E.g. (not the best way of wording this but..) Risk that customer perception and reputation of Arkadin in the market is considered to be poor due to the service and delivery being perceived to be poor due to deliveries running over time and/or to poor quality.
e.g. (Root Cause) If salespeople are going out selling 100 collaboration sales and they all need bespoke work/internal resource to convert the sale to a delivery and those sales people do not know the restrictions of the company then the companies name will be at risk as you not be able to deliver to the customer in the expected time/quality.
So without tracking Key individual's time how do you know how many conferencing/collaboration sales can be achieved within any give week/month/year
The risk to this is that within your company if you have been getting along then the perception may be - we do not need this - but at what point does that luck run out and instead of being profitable you record losses and gain a poor reputation
Not everyone has to fill in time sheets but be careful that you do not leave a key manager / decision maker out of time recording and therefore you still have your bottle neck.
One way is to draw up your normal BAU end to end process with each person/role used and then identify if they could be a bottle neck if so they need to their track time so their capacity can be seen by all managers and sales people - flip side this also then provides a business case to recruit based on given opportunities (e.g. you wait until a customer brings a deal that requires an uplift in resources and that deal funds/provide the business case to acquire that resource)
Thanks Peter. Not only does it make sense, but it also gives me some ideas on how to make good use of time-tracking data.
However, the problem of getting people to declare their time spent remains intact... I don't think anything short of getting top management to make it mandatory will do the trick, unfortunately :( Saving Changes...
Mark Price PerryBusiness Driven PMO Evangelist| BOT InternationalOrlando, Fl, United States
Hi Julien, great post and reply by Peter. I would only add that by way of tips for selling people on the idea of time tracking who may be just a little bit unwilling and maybe even unable, I would take a quick refresher on the Situational Leadership Model. This model, which can be used with direct report employees, peers, and even superiors provides a backdrop for working with (leading) folks relative to their abilty (yes/no) and willingness (yes/no). The resulting combinations (four altogether) of follower readiness as a functional of ability and willingness require different leadership approaches and techniques. I suspect you know this model already (from your other excellent posts and replies) and you can search and find tips and techniques fairly quickly on the web.
In terms of smart alternatives to filling timesheets that would achieve the same level of control of resource capacity, if your business/office space allows for it, I have always had great success using wall boards and highly visual representations of capacity - the intent being engaging those involved (or that need to be involved) in the issue.
So wish you well with your opportunity to better manage human capacity. Can't think of a better person to put in that fire..! Saving Changes...
Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
Julien, you might want to check out All Your Money Won't Another Minute Buy (read my book review of it here), a book by the CEO of Journyx. He has a vested interest of course in selling time management software, but the book is essentially one big argument for timesheets and there may be some measures or business benefits there that you can use in your own company. Saving Changes...
Hi Julien,
what you seem to be talking about here is not time tracking which is retrospective but resource planning which is looking forward. The two are not necessarily the same thing but complimentary.
The way I have implemented this in the past is a high level resource plan for projects that are due to start soon ( a threshold has to be agreed for when 'soon' is). This is the Demand side of the equation, then you need the supply side. To do this I have spoken to all of the areas providing project resources and got them to tell me the capacity by resource type available for project work.
Now you can play with the portfolio schedule to see where the bottle necks are. The detailed schedules are a more granular and accurate way to do this, but there is an overhead in doing resource planning at this level that you need to be aware of. I suggest starting with small steps and build up from there.
Hope this helps Saving Changes...
Kenneth KatzRelease Train Engineer/IT Project Manager| UnitedHealth GroupEnfield, Ct, United States
If you want to make rational, fact-based decisions, you need to know what things cost. The best source of data for estimated costs for future work is historical data from past projects performed by the same organization.
Assuming that a significant contribution to project costs is the cost of staff time, then tracking how that staff time is utilized is essential to building a database of historical data. Saving Changes...
Elizabeth, thanks for the link. I really should spend more time on your blog. If only work would stop getting in the way... :)
Julie, I think part of my problem is that in order to get a system that works, I need to both plan (look forward) and then assess (retrospective), and neither of those activities are in place nor part of the corporate culture...
Thanks Kenneth, that's a sound argument in favour of time-tracking. I'll be sure to keep it in mind, especially since we have absolutely no historical data whatsoever. Saving Changes...
