Since forecasting occurs at the individual level, each person must take responsibility for keeping their own forecasts as accurate as possible. When each person keeps their forecasting data accurate, the information at all other levels (teams, organizations, projects, phases, etc) will also be accurate as it will be based on the perspective of the individuals who are actually assigned to do the work. The system supports keeping independent versions of the estimates at the phase and project level, so the changes entered by individuals at the activity level will provide valuable feedback without overriding the project schedule created by the project manager.
Forecasting Steps
1. Verify your normal work schedule has been set correctly by the administrator. If you click on the “Settings” tab, you will see the normal works hours for an average week. For example, it may show that you work eight hours Monday through Friday and no hours on Sunday or Saturday. This schedule will be used for forecasting when you work so it is important it be correct. If it is wrong, you will need to ask the administrator to correct it.
2. Verify your activities. For forecasting to be accurate, you need to be certain that everything that is expected to take any significant amount of time is included. Obviously work on projects should be included. You should also make certain you have an activity open for anything you do on a regular basis such as administration or perhaps maintenance or recurring routine duties. If you know you will need a week to go skiing in February, it would be a good idea to open an activity for that with a start and end date and the correct number of hours so the system can take that time into account during forecasting.
3. All activities need to be set to the correct forecasting option. When an activity is assigned to you by your manager, the forecasting option is usually set by the manager. If you add an activity yourself, be sure you set the forecasting option that makes the most sense. Currently there are four options to select from:
- Forecast activity to be evenly distributed over available work hours. This option is usually the most suitable choice when an activity has a target date and an estimated number of hours. This option instructs the system to assume you will work on the activity as time is available, but that the work will most likely be spread across the period from the start date to the target date
- Forecast activity to be completed as quickly as possible. Like the previous option, this only applies when an activity has a target date and an estimated number of hours. The system will take any available time and use all of it up each day until the estimated hours have been accounted for
- Reserve hours per period for this activity. This option lets you set aside “x” hours per day, week, or month for the activity. The system will schedule the work to be performed based on the reserve specified. The system will override the reserve if more time is needed to meet the target date. This option is a good choice for activities that do not have a known target date or a known number of hours. For example, if you usually spend at least an hour a day on general administration, it would make sense to have an administrative activity that is always open so you could charge time to it each day. To make forecasting of your workload more accurate, you could tell the system to hold one hour a day aside for this activity when it is forecasting your workload
- Do not forecast this activity. This option is useful if you have an activity that you keep open but seldom charge time to. For example, if you like to keep a sick time activity open so you can charge time when you need to, then you can set this option since it doesn’t make sense to try to predict when you will be ill. On a side note, you should consider whether or not keeping an activity open on your timesheet all the time is a good idea if you rarely charge time to it. Instead, you could open a new activity when you need it, charge the time, then close the activity thus keeping your timesheet smaller
4. Verify the estimated hours and target dates of all activities. It is important to keep your estimates as accurate as you can so the estimates are available directly on every version of the daily timesheet. When you fill in the daily timesheet, check that the hours remaining on each task and the estimated target date are still accurate. If they are not, you can correct them immediately without leaving the timesheet. One of the timesheets (Work List) even sorts the activities by target date so the ones coming due soonest are at the top of the page. Remember that you may raise an alert condition if you change an activity and it uses up more hours than the project can spare or if it is completed after the phase or project is targeted for completion. However if the estimate you are giving is accurate the sooner you raise the issue the better.
5. Check your schedule. Once you have made sure your scheduled work hours are correct and that each activity has the right forecast option and accurate estimates, you should take a look to see how your schedule has been forecasted.
- You can get a very quick view of this from the “Monthly” tab. This view shows the month with the number of hours worked on each day and the forecasted number of hours for future days in parenthesis. You can move forward as many months as you wish to see the total number of hours you have in your schedule. If any of the days have a total that is greater than your normally scheduled work hours, the display will show that day in yellow. If the total hours on a day are greater than a maximum figure permitted by the administrator, that day will turn red
- There are several reports that will show your forecasted workload in more detail. The “Personnel Availability Report” report can be set to a future time period (such as this month plus the next few) for just you and run showing daily, weekly, or monthly columns. It will display how much time is available (the difference between the hours you would normally work minus the hours you are forecasted to work). If you click on the “detail” link, it will display the projects you are assigned to during that same period and how many hours you are forecasted to work on each project for each day/week/month in the period. You can keep zooming in by following the detail links to get down to the activities. Alternatively, you could use the “Work Hours by Activity” report to list all of your activities and include the forecasted hours to see how many hours you are scheduled to work each day/week/month on each activity.
The project manager will be basing project and work schedules on the forecasts. If the forecasts are inaccurate because of out of date estimates or activities that are not being forecasted when they should be, the manager will be setting the work schedule of their personnel based on bad data.