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How Not to Do Time Tracking for Software Developers

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Re: How Not to Do Time Tracking for Software Developers

#11

Post by WWLink »

howard941 wrote: post #4
tinaleaton wrote: post #2

I track my time, too, and my biggest complaint is how long it takes. I think it's a great idea for companies to show why time tracking matters so it doesn't feel so futile.

If in the US definitely a company fail to inform. Done properly developer salary supported by time records can help qualify some portion of the salary for the R&D tax credit. At least that's what they tell us where I slave (a $FORTUNE_500) Where things fall apart for me is logging overhead time, like time spent waking up with the first cup of coffee while reading company emails or doing IT-ish tasks on my dev system.…

Ugh. I don't ever want to work for a company where my time tracking has to be so fine grained that I have to log bathroom breaks. Holy shit that sounds like a nightmare!

Re: How Not to Do Time Tracking for Software Developers

#12

Post by arethuza »

tinaleaton wrote: post #2

I track my time, too, and my biggest complaint is how long it takes. I think it's a great idea for companies to show why time tracking matters so it doesn't feel so futile.

At one previous employer I submitted a feature request for the time tracker that would have saved a lot of time - it was a button that would generate something that was basically "like last week but with some plausible looking random changes".

Now I think about it - should have been a cron job, maybe that was why it was rejected.

Re: How Not to Do Time Tracking for Software Developers

#13

Post by arethuza »

ams6110 wrote: post #10

If you are an emacs/org-mode user, it's quite easy to clock in and out of tasks as you work, and generate summary reports of your time. I've done this with good success when I was required to track my time. If I'm not required to do it, I find that I just dont bother.

Org mode for VS Code has timestamps - which I use for keeping a record of when I thought of things rather than time tracking.

Re: How Not to Do Time Tracking for Software Developers

#14

Post by Klathmon »

I'm curious if anyone here has had success with more "coarsely grained" time tracking?

I've found that I'd have no issues tracking my time by day or at most half-day increments, especially since for the most part that's how I end up working on things in a lot of cases (as a developer, not a manager).

I feel like it would give most of the same benefits with a magnitude less work, but I haven't ever tried it out in a real situation before and I'm curious if it holds up.

Re: How Not to Do Time Tracking for Software Developers

#15

Post by wdfx »

I took the approach of recording the type/category of work I am doing, and time it exactly using a tool I created for the purpose: https://doug.pacifico-hammond.co.uk/software/hardware/2018/0...

As a lead/director it is rarely useful to know exactly which task I am working on, but better to know that I spend the right % of time on each project or type of work.

Re: How Not to Do Time Tracking for Software Developers

#16

Post by ColinWright »

(Edit: Yes, I know it's working now. That doesn't mean it wasn't working, and it doesn't mean this comment is invalid. It just means that it got fixed, perhaps even because of this comment pointing out the problem.)

I'm getting this:

    Secure Connection Failed

    An error occurred during a connection to
    www.7pace.com. Cannot communicate securely
    with peer: no common encryption algorithm(s).
    Error code: SSL_ERROR_NO_CYPHER_OVERLAP

    The page you are trying to view cannot be
    shown because the authenticity of the received
    data could not be verified.
Suggestions? Yes, I've read the article via the Google cache.

Re: How Not to Do Time Tracking for Software Developers

#20

Post by jacobtwotwo »

I recommend activity-watch[0] if anyone wants a good, open-source, at-a-glance system of tracking for their own computer usage. It's definitely helped me rebuild a memory of my activities on days that got away from me.

[0] https://github.com/ActivityWatch/activitywatch

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