ProjectLoad Blog

On-going projects (with no target dates) lend themselves to “buckets” of time rather than actual discreet activities. People tend to look at an on-going project as something they will charge time to forever, so they sometimes open an activity and just leave it open as a convenience so they can put time in it when they need to. There are times when this is appropriate, but in many cases it may not be the best option.

For example, you may choose to open a “vacation” activity with no dates and simply record time when you use it. This approach will make your timesheet longer and make it impossible for the system to forecast vacations (thus reserving time). It might be better to open an activity for vacations (like a one week ski trip on a particular week in February) and give it start and stop dates and estimated hours. That way the system will know to reserve that time and schedule other work around it. This would also warn managers if they try to schedule work during that period.

Another example is time off for illness. You could open an activity on your timesheet for illness and leave it open all the time so you could add hours as needed. However, since most people are not sick very often, it would keep the timesheet shorter to simply close the activity after you have used it and then reopen it if you need it again.

Here are a few guidelines to keep in mind when deciding if an open ended activity should be a “bucket”:

1. Is this an activity you will charge time to often? If so it may save time to just leave it open. If you do not charge time to it often, it will keep the timesheet shorter to simply reopen the old activity (or create a new one) as needed.
2. Does this work come in discreet pieces? Although the work may be under an on-going maintenance or production support project, a particular activity may be something that has a target date and number of hours such as installing an upgrade or making a change because of a change in an interface file. Remember, although the project may be open-ended, an individual task can have estimated dates and hours thus allowing the system to forecast that time.
3. Would it help your manager to see the different activities being performed or is one lump sum of hours sufficient to explain what you are working on? All of your hours will be rolled up to the phase and project levels for summary reporting, but is it likely that someone will want to drill into more detail to see what activities are involved?

Avoiding buckets (on-going activities that you leave on your timesheet every day) can keep your timesheet shorter, provide a better breakdown of where your time is going, and help the system forecast more accurately. However, buckets are useful when you are dealing with an on-going task that you perform often and doesn’t need to be broken down into more detail than can be provided simply by entering timesheet notes. It will be up to you (and possibly your manager) to decide what level of detail is needed for on-going tasks. If a “bucket” of time is sufficient, then you need to decide whether to leave it on your timesheet all the time, or simply reopen it as needed.