Best practices for tracking time as a Developer

 

 

 

Consider some common daily tasks for a developer:

• Standard programming work, spread across many tickets.

• Code reviews and debugging, again, while switching between tickets.

• Meetings and ad-hoc tasks, which are not tied to specific tickets.

And then there's the dreaded one - time entry. Sometimes, time is logged as work is completed, and sometimes, it's logged at the end of the day or week, when it's even possible.

7pace Timetracker for Jira provides methods to speed up tracking in all of the above scenarios! In addition to the issue view widget, 7pace Timetracker includes weekly and monthly views for bulk entry, enabling those who track their time outside of Jira to quickly enter their time spent both programming and otherwise.

Scenario

You are a developer on one of several product teams. Your week consists of programming, coordination and planning meetings, debugging tasks, and code reviews (among many other tasks!). Your Project Lead has introduced 7pace Timetracker as a method of logging work to improve time capture, reporting, and planning.

Capture time while working

The standard method of capturing time in 7pace Timetracker is to use the app’s panel in Jira’s Issue view. This method only requires that you add one extra step to your standard process of working issues through your team’s workflow. The panel enables you to add time directly while working inside the issue itself. To add time to an issue:

Open

7pace Timetracker Worklog entry

1. Open the issue as you would for any other updates.

2. In the right-hand panel, scroll down to the 7pace Timetracker panel (pictured, right).

3. Click Add Time.

4. In the dialog, enter the duration or click a time button to add that amount of time to the Duration field.
   Note: If you click a time button multiple times, the amount will be added to the existing Duration value.

5. Add a Comment, if necessary, and fill out any other custom fields your administrator has set up.

6. Click Save.

Capture time in bulk

Open

Weekly view is a good tool if you use methods such as time blocking - where you reserve time in your schedule for specific tasks, or track retroactively by creating meetings for specific tasks. If you are recording time outside of Jira - on paper or in a calendar app, for example - this view lets you enter all of your time for the week in one session.

To enter time using the Weekly view:

1. From the main project page, scroll down in the left-hand column and click 7pace Timetracker.

2. In the left-hand panel, select Weekly.

3. To add a work log to a specific time, scroll to the appropriate cell and click.
   Note: Single click to create an hour block. Click and drag to create a block of a specific duration!

4. In the dialog, search for an issue to log the time against that issue.

5. Edit the start time or end time as needed.

6. Edit the duration or click a time button to add that amount of time to the Duration field.
   Note: If you click a time button multiple times, the amount will be added to the existing Duration value.

7. Add a Comment, if necessary, and fill out any other custom fields your administrator has set up.

8. Click Save.

Capturing ad-hoc time and meetings

Open

Lastly, if your team’s policies for time capture are more relaxed, you could use Monthly view to enter time for multiple weeks in a single session. Monthly view is also a great tool for capturing ad-hoc work that your team has determined as necessary for capture but that may not be related to specific issues. Recurring meetings, client consultations, or other such meetings would fall into this category.

To enter time using the Monthly view:

Open

Add Time dialog

1. From the main project page, scroll down in the left-hand column and click 7pace Timetracker.

2. In the left-hand panel, select Monthly.

3. Click the day for which you need to log work.

4. In the dialog (pictured, right), you can optionally search for an issue to log the time against that issue. For general meetings and times not related to specific issues, you can leave the issue field blank.

5. Edit the start time or end time as needed.

6. Edit the duration or click a time button to add that amount of time to the Duration field.
   Note: If you click a time button multiple times, the amount will be added to the existing Duration value.

7. Add a Comment, if necessary, and fill out any other custom fields your administrator has set up.

8. Click Save.

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