Updating task effort according to timesheet "remaining" work

[Ercasta]

Hi,

I'm trying to deploy TJ in our team. 

I tried to import some simulated timesheets. I think I'm missing something. For a given task, using the --warn-ts-deltas option, TJ says (Resource and task names are changed):

Warning: Resource1 requests more remaining effort for task customer.support 5.0d instead of 1.0d

Warning: Resource2 requests less remaining effort for task customer.support 3.0d instead of 35.0d

I think this is caused by the fact that TJ allocated two resources on the same task, it scheduled 1d of Resource1 and 35d of Resource2 and both of them are reporting differente estimates for remaining work. 

The question is: which is the "correct" value of the "effort" parameter for the customer.support task ?

Maybe this case is complicated because there is more than one resource working on the same task. 

But consider the case of a single resource: why doesn't TJ at least calculates the correct value for the effort parameter? I have many tasks to update, should I manually compute the difference and update the task accordingly?

Why can't I just use the "remaining" keyword in the project file? Is there some detail I'm missing or it's just not implemented yet? 

It seems normal for me to update the project plan by specifying:

1) Bookings for past work

2) Estimates for the remaining work

Regards,

Antonio

[Chris Schlaeger]

On Mon, Apr 1, 2013 at 10:17 PM, Ercasta <erc...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

I'm trying to deploy TJ in our team. 

I tried to import some simulated timesheets. I think I'm missing something. For a given task, using the --warn-ts-deltas option, TJ says (Resource and task names are changed):

Warning: Resource1 requests more remaining effort for task customer.support 5.0d instead of 1.0d

Warning: Resource2 requests less remaining effort for task customer.support 3.0d instead of 35.0d

I think this is caused by the fact that TJ allocated two resources on the same task, it scheduled 1d of Resource1 and 35d of Resource2 and both of them are reporting differente estimates for remaining work. 

The question is: which is the "correct" value of the "effort" parameter for the customer.support task ?

When multiple resources work on the same task, they should agree on the remaining effort. It's the total remaining effort for that task, not their individual remaining effort. 

 

Maybe this case is complicated because there is more than one resource working on the same task. 

But consider the case of a single resource: why doesn't TJ at least calculates the correct value for the effort parameter? I have many tasks to update, should I manually compute the difference and update the task accordingly?

TaskJuggler can't help you here. Only your project contributors can tell you how much effort is left. Or the PM can make a guess based on their input. But TJ can only point out that it needs more or consistent information to determine a schedule.

 

Why can't I just use the "remaining" keyword in the project file? Is there some detail I'm missing or it's just not implemented yet? 

It's not needed. In fact, it would create more harm than good. The remaining effort can always be calculated as effort - booked effort. A specification of remaining effort in the project plan would overconstrain the task specs.

 

It seems normal for me to update the project plan by specifying:

1) Bookings for past work

2) Estimates for the remaining work

TJ needs the bookings. Many report elements rely on this information. Only getting a remaining effort is not detailed enough.

 

Chris

[Ercasta]

Hi Chris,

thanks for replying.

> When multiple resources work on the same task, they should agree on the remaining effort. It's the total remaining effort for that task, not their individual remaining effort. 

I'll try to make more tests but from my output it seems that Taskjuggler compares the remaining effort in the timesheet with the residual effort of the single resources:

Warning: Resource1 requests more remaining effort for task customer.support 5.0d instead of 1.0d

Warning: Resource2 requests less remaining effort for task customer.support 3.0d instead of 35.0d

"customer.support" is the same task, the "instead" word refers to the remaining effort computed for that resource only (Timesheet.rb:165) . So even if the team members agree on a residual effort of 10 days, and each of the resources works for 5 days, i think, I'll still get a warning.   

> It's not needed. In fact, it would create more harm than good. The remaining effort can always be calculated as effort - booked effort. A specification of remaining effort in the project plan would overconstrain the task specs.

It's just a matter of usability. Correct me if I'm wrong: once I get the feedback by --warn-ts-deltas, I have to manually compute the "effort" value and update the tjp file. I think it would be easier to directly specify the "remaining" effort for the task and overriding the effort value when bookings are processed (I was trying to modify the source code, in particular the bookBookings function in TaskScenario.rb to accomplish this)

> TJ needs the bookings. Many report elements rely on this information. Only getting a remaining effort is not detailed enough.

I can provide the bookings to describe the past (I already created a ruby script to automatically generate bookings from the excel files my team is using as a timetracking system), it's updating the estimates of residual effort that seems to be overly complicated because of the manual calculation involved.

Maybe I'm missing something

Regards,

Antonio