How do you track non-project time?

We have work IDs setup, by department, that have a work type of Recurring Work. These work IDs are for non-project work that does not get billed to our customer nor counted towards our development work. The owner of each work ID has to follow a standard project layout where the first level below PPL is consistent across all work IDs, which is tied to a value in an alt structure to allow for reporting across all projects, then below that they can get as detailed as they would like. Reserves & Authorizations are used since the time isn’t as closely planned, but still needs to impact resource utilization. 

We are doing exactly this.

I also would add that we have dropped out of Standard Activities and we created a specific work type for out of work activities, just like we did for Recurring Work, but with a resource rate set to 0.

Laurent - curious what drove you to the decision of not using Standard Activities. 

At the time we did this, Standard Activity could not be edited easily in the Staffing view (is it still the case though?). Our managers like to update these ‘allocations’ directly in the grid view, and keep it all tidy in a single allocation line.

Ahh...yes, I totally understand that.  Modifying in Staffing has not yet been a change we’ve seen unfortunately. 

I see the point about not being able to edit Standard Activities. I’ve seen it recommended that there be a standard percent of time assigned to non-project work, which would not need editing as much. I like Standard Activities because they make it easier to see what time is spent on project versus non-project work. Our organization where I am now is just starting to be more focused on making sure all of our users’ time is accounted for (and we do not intend to use timesheets).

Hi Niamh

If you consider listing and tracking activities that are not project related you could consider using:

• to-do-list items (tasks that are not associated to projects)
• create a project that serves as a container for the type of actions you are looking to track
• action items

I’d recommend a Project Type to distinguish this type of project from more traditional projects.

Hello Niamh,

I can join in recommending having a different work type for non-project work to distinguish between project work and organizational support. For example, we have these work types for non-project work in PV. These are buckets of work created either at a team level or at an organizational one. We update them once a year. There are usually authorizations (individual and/or organizational) only. Anyway, for individuals who need to be taken out of capacity we also create reserves in them so that we know how much time they have left when they are requested for projects. 

• Enhancements
• Support-Maintenance
• Discovery (for pre-engineering studies that are required before opening any projects)

Best,

-Katerina