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How do you overcome time tracking challenges for an agency or consultants that adhere to agile/scrum methodologies?

Last post 06:03 pm February 2, 2023 by Ian Mitchell
2 replies
08:02 am February 2, 2023

I’m looking for feedback on a concept I’m working on to help tackle some of the challenges I run into and am curious to know how you guys handle it?

  • Team members don’t submit timesheets on time
  • Team members don’t enter time because they are so focused on completing work
  • Team members have trouble remembering/providing good details for time entries
  • Invoices don’t have enough detail

If this sounds familiar 

  • What software or apps do you use for daily standups?
  • What software or apps do you use for time tracking /invoicing?

I appreciate the feedback. I’m trying to help a dev team focus as much as they can on their work, while making sure a client we are doing work for can see the correct amount of detail in the invoices we are sending over.

We are currently using the assembla standup tool + google docs + harvest (time tracking / invoicing)

 


08:04 am February 2, 2023

I should also clarify I'm on a team using daily standups for technology projects, but we also have to invoice as we are a team of consultants.


06:03 pm February 2, 2023

I'd suggest it ought to be possible to work out how much it costs to run a team of X Scrum Team members for Y Sprints. Stray from that measure and you are likely to end up in the weeds, as you have seen.

In Scrum the most basic unit of accounting is the Sprint itself, not timesheet entries. Each Sprint, a Done increment of work is produced for which value can be accounted for and justified. The Product Owner is accountable for ensuring that the value received Sprint by Sprint is maximised on behalf of stakeholders.

The more Sprints that stakeholders invest in, the more runway they have for validated learning and for ensuring that they get the right product at the right time.

 

 


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