You must track time against projects in order to do Schedule Management. Period. There are no alternatives. You must track time.
Most organizations don’t track time. Punching the clock is seen as a blue-collar job requirement, not for us. No! You must track time.
Some organizations think the time tracking is micromanagement. It’s not. The results can be anonymous. You must make decisions based on data. You must know how much time your employees spend on operations so you know how much time is available for projects. On projects you need to know how much time you spend on analysis, on coding, on testing, on training. You must track time.
Some fear that the data will be used to punish employees. Simple fix – don’t do that. Don’t tie your time tracking system to performance reviews or even payroll. Use it solely for increasing efficiency on projects. You must track time.
Some say it’s time-consuming. It’s not! It takes me ten minutes a day to do it. I’ve done it every work day for nearly 25 years. It’s easy. You must track time.