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How Not to Do Time Tracking for Software Developers

7pace.com

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Re: How Not to Do Time Tracking for Software Developers

#21

Post by zeta0134 »

ColinWright wrote: post #16

(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…

No cypher overlap suggests that either 7pace's SSL settings (server side) are unusually restrictive, or your browser simply doesn't support those settings for other reasons. Could happen on older browsers maybe, or restrictive group policies on Windows, etc. Try a different browser perhaps?

Re: How Not to Do Time Tracking for Software Developers

#22

Post by 333c »

ColinWright wrote: post #16

(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…

Here's an archive link: https://archive.is/yFO6l

I removed the s in https and it loaded but redirected to the https version, confusingly.

Re: How Not to Do Time Tracking for Software Developers

#23

Post by ColinWright »

zeta0134 wrote: post #21
ColinWright wrote: post #16

(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…

No cypher overlap suggests that either 7pace's SSL settings (server side) are unusually restrictive, or your browser simply doesn't support those settings for other reasons. Could happen on older browsers maybe, or restrictive group policies on Windows, etc. Try a different browser perhaps?

Just tried again and it's worked this time. That suggests they had some of their settings wrong.

Re: How Not to Do Time Tracking for Software Developers

#27

Post by enlyth »

0x8BADF00D wrote: post #24

I’m not sure I understand the value prop here. It’s a time tracking software tool for software engineers? FTE or Contract? The UX also looks like complete shit. Get your stuff together bro, this is the worst pitch I’ve ever seen.

Why are you being so negative, I think the author makes valid points.

Re: How Not to Do Time Tracking for Software Developers

#28

Post by ryandrake »

I got into the habit of keeping a daily work log, and continue to do so even though I no longer work for a company that requires it. Very simple: Date, number of hours (0.5 granularity), planned work, actual work done, links to work output or meeting notes (if any). That’s it. It helps me to get back up to speed after a weekend. It allows me to tell you what happened on that day X months ago when we were in the middle of project Y without searching my email for clues. It is very helpful for yearly performance reviews, allowing me to provide a detailed accounting of everything, big and small, that I did since last year. The self-assessment pretty much writes itself.

Re: How Not to Do Time Tracking for Software Developers

#29

Post by cubano »

WWLink wrote: post #11
howard941 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

I actually worked for a company where they didn't allow me to have a bathroom break during working hours while I was remoting...such is life as a 53yo developer trying to make any kind of living in this industry.

In fact, I had to log X keystrokes and Y LOC every hour in order to be paid for that hour...talk about being a factory worker.

Re: How Not to Do Time Tracking for Software Developers

#30

Post by mercer »

Klathmon wrote: post #14

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 r…

I've had mixed results with more coarsely grained time tracking. On the one hand I'm more likely to actually do so when I don't have to clock in and out all the time. On the other hand, I kept forgetting to clock in or out because it wasn't 'regular' enough to do it automatically.

These days I use Emacs org-mode for todo items and time tracking (+ pretty much everything else), which makes it much easier to be extremely granular in my tracking without having to expend much effort. Since I have my todo list in front of me for any task anyways, starting the clock is just one keystroke away.

That said, I try to keep myself from calculating how much time I 'need' to save to offset the time it took me to get everything set up and to get comfortable with Emacs/Org-Mode ;).

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