In an ideal world where you work with infinite resources, projects are always in-time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
CONTENT<\/h5>\n\n- Duration and effort in workload: which is the difference?<\/a><\/li>\n
- Project activities<\/a><\/li>\n
- Routine Activities: Do you work eight hours a day?<\/a><\/li>\n
- Spot Activities<\/a><\/li>\n
- A practical example: Giorgio’s workload<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
In the real world, on the other hand, we often have to deal with team members simultaneously involved in multiple projects, which have to manage daily activities and several emergencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For this purpose a lot of companies use\u00a0contractor scheduling software<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0 better allocatie resources across various projects\u00a0 and make sure that no team member is overburdened. Optimizing schedules and balancing workloads ensures that projects are completed efficiently and within budget.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\nIn this case, an indication on “sustainability” is essential to understand who and when will be able to positively bring our project to completion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nDuration and effort in workload: which is the difference?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
At the beginning, I was surprised by the difficulties that some of our customers face to understand the difference between duration and effort. For many of them the ratio was one to one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This type of approach is not only wrong in management terms (a phase that lasts 30 days could require an effort of one hour e.g.: waiting for material from a supplier), but implies a total and exclusive allocation of the resource on that one activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If this approach works well in the analysis and budgeting phase, it cannot work in the planning phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A good question to ask yourself at this point is: “How many hours can a resource work on his project per day?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To answer correctly, several parameters must be considered:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- the obvious working hours (full-time, horizontal or vertical part-time)<\/li>
- holidays, illnesses, permits etc.<\/li>
- what has already been allocated to other projects<\/li>
- routine activities<\/li>
- spot activities already planned<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
The first two points are intuitive and partly out of the PM’s control, so we will analyze the others and we will see how they contribute to generating the “workload” of a resource.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nProject Activities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\nA project, or rather a phase, always has a start date, an end date (therefore a duration, usually expressed in working days), and some resources assigned on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Each resource must perform the estimated activities for a total of days \/ hours (effort).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Without going into too much detail, we can evaluate the load on a resource by dividing the estimated hours by the project\/phase duration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example: a 10 days<\/strong> phase with an effort of 20h<\/strong> generates an average workload of 2h per day<\/strong> or 25%<\/strong> (assuming 8 hours a day).<\/p>\n\n\n\nEasy, at least before the project starts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But once it get started, what happens if for the first 5 days I have not been able to work on this project?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It happens that I will have to work 20h on 5 remaining days<\/strong>, with a load of 50%<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTherefore in the project activities the hours “not yet done<\/strong>” give an incremental feedback <\/strong>to the workload, accumulating in the remaining days.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"incremental](\"https:\/\/twproject.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/carico-incrementale-1.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nHaving the opportunity to compare the “ideal<\/strong>” situation (the one planned by the PM, without taking into account the done\/ not done), with the “real<\/strong>” one (which takes into account the feedback) gives many food for thought and possible corrections.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIt is interesting to note that the failure to work on the planned project can be read from the worklog records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The worklog is an excellent indicator from this point of view, it is a sort of “heartbeat of the project<\/strong>“; if the heart doesn’t beat the project is dead!<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat said above consider the “average workload”.
Twproject <\/strong>allows you to plan all the hours or just a part by assigning them directly on the calendar (there are various tools to do this), but the substance does not change; 20h needs to be done in the 10 days of the phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIf a resource works on several projects at the same time, the calculations can become complicated and for this Twproject <\/strong>helps us by presenting this information in an efficient way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.twproject.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/blog-drawing-resources-3.png\")
<\/div>\n\n\nBalance your resource as we do!<\/h3>\n
with Twproject you can manage your resource allocation, insert worklog and resolve peaks.<\/p>\nTry Twproject now!<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nRoutine Activities: Do you work eight hours a day?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
They are the Cinderella of activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us, despite being in the office for 8 hours (at best :-)) can only dedicate a percentage of their time to “real projects”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We spend a lot of time (note: I didn’t say \u201cwe lose it\u201d) in activities not attributable to a project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In my case: reading incoming emails, department meetings, phone calls, supporting colleagues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to these generic ones, there can be other more specific ones such as updating, training, document archiving, backup verification, maintenance etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How much time do I spend on these activities? Almost 3 hours a day<\/strong>!<\/p>\n\n\n\nI know this with some confidence because, with the help of Twproject<\/strong><\/a>, I recorded daily , for years, the hours spent<\/strong> and I know that, on average, the 38%<\/strong> of my time goes like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIf I were planning a project that involves me 100% for a period longer than a few days, it would definitely go out of dates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The funniest part is that if someone asked me how many hours I can work on one thing every day by instinct I would say “eight hours<\/strong>“. To avoid these errors it is important to have objective data<\/strong> on which to base our choices and analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe worklog recording <\/strong>is the basis for good planning<\/strong>, not just for good cost c<\/strong>ontrol.<\/p>\n\n\n\nI know very well that this is an additional effort and in fact when I tell our clients to record the “lost” hours, the first reaction I get is of the “reluctant \/ snorting \/ I get up and walk away” type.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is why it is important that the worklog registration activity is as “painless” as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On this point Twproject is unbeatable<\/strong>; you can record the worklog<\/a> at the close of the To-do, with the start-stop buttons, on one \/ two \/ three weeks, on the whole month day-by-day, etc .. The overhead is minimal!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nWith the aim of “measuring<\/strong>” routine activities, having a “cauldron<\/strong>” available where you can put everything that cannot be traced back to a project greatly lightens the recording by helping us to “reach 8<\/strong>“.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWe always advise our customers to create a non-project “cauldron” (or “basket” or “BAU” Business As Usual for the more chic ones) which starts on 1\/1 and ends on 12\/31 for the recording of non-project activities .<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a few months of recordings, you can better understand how long our resources can really devote to their projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It also happens that it is necessary to take a look at what went into the “cauldron”; perhaps it could be structured to better “classify” routine activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example this is what we use in Twproject<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Work](\"https:\/\/twproject.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/BusinessAsUsual-Structured.png\")
Business-as-usual structured example<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nWe understand how to use the worklog to calculate the hours<\/a><\/strong> we can devote to “real projects”, but how do routine “projects” behave from a work-load point of view?<\/p>\n\n\n\nMore or less like real projects. The effort is “spread” evenly over the period.
There is a small difference: they do not have incremental feedback<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nLet’s take an example: my support activity to the development team takes me “on average” one hour a day.
If I don’t get support requests today, it’s not necessarily true that I will receive twice as much tomorrow.
In practice, the effort<\/a><\/strong> is considered constant over the entire period.
Its graphical representation is a constant bar:<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"constant](\"https:\/\/twproject.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Routine-activities-840x250.png\")
Routine activities<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
In the real world, on the other hand, we often have to deal with team members simultaneously involved in multiple projects, which have to manage daily activities and several emergencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For this purpose a lot of companies use\u00a0contractor scheduling software<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0 better allocatie resources across various projects\u00a0 and make sure that no team member is overburdened. Optimizing schedules and balancing workloads ensures that projects are completed efficiently and within budget.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n In this case, an indication on “sustainability” is essential to understand who and when will be able to positively bring our project to completion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n At the beginning, I was surprised by the difficulties that some of our customers face to understand the difference between duration and effort. For many of them the ratio was one to one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This type of approach is not only wrong in management terms (a phase that lasts 30 days could require an effort of one hour e.g.: waiting for material from a supplier), but implies a total and exclusive allocation of the resource on that one activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If this approach works well in the analysis and budgeting phase, it cannot work in the planning phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A good question to ask yourself at this point is: “How many hours can a resource work on his project per day?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n To answer correctly, several parameters must be considered:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first two points are intuitive and partly out of the PM’s control, so we will analyze the others and we will see how they contribute to generating the “workload” of a resource.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n A project, or rather a phase, always has a start date, an end date (therefore a duration, usually expressed in working days), and some resources assigned on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Each resource must perform the estimated activities for a total of days \/ hours (effort).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Without going into too much detail, we can evaluate the load on a resource by dividing the estimated hours by the project\/phase duration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example: a 10 days<\/strong> phase with an effort of 20h<\/strong> generates an average workload of 2h per day<\/strong> or 25%<\/strong> (assuming 8 hours a day).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Easy, at least before the project starts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But once it get started, what happens if for the first 5 days I have not been able to work on this project?<\/p>\n\n\n\n It happens that I will have to work 20h on 5 remaining days<\/strong>, with a load of 50%<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore in the project activities the hours “not yet done<\/strong>” give an incremental feedback <\/strong>to the workload, accumulating in the remaining days.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n Having the opportunity to compare the “ideal<\/strong>” situation (the one planned by the PM, without taking into account the done\/ not done), with the “real<\/strong>” one (which takes into account the feedback) gives many food for thought and possible corrections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is interesting to note that the failure to work on the planned project can be read from the worklog records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The worklog is an excellent indicator from this point of view, it is a sort of “heartbeat of the project<\/strong>“; if the heart doesn’t beat the project is dead!<\/p>\n\n\n\n What said above consider the “average workload”. If a resource works on several projects at the same time, the calculations can become complicated and for this Twproject <\/strong>helps us by presenting this information in an efficient way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n with Twproject you can manage your resource allocation, insert worklog and resolve peaks.<\/p>\nTry Twproject now!<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n They are the Cinderella of activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many of us, despite being in the office for 8 hours (at best :-)) can only dedicate a percentage of their time to “real projects”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We spend a lot of time (note: I didn’t say \u201cwe lose it\u201d) in activities not attributable to a project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In my case: reading incoming emails, department meetings, phone calls, supporting colleagues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to these generic ones, there can be other more specific ones such as updating, training, document archiving, backup verification, maintenance etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How much time do I spend on these activities? Almost 3 hours a day<\/strong>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I know this with some confidence because, with the help of Twproject<\/strong><\/a>, I recorded daily , for years, the hours spent<\/strong> and I know that, on average, the 38%<\/strong> of my time goes like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If I were planning a project that involves me 100% for a period longer than a few days, it would definitely go out of dates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The funniest part is that if someone asked me how many hours I can work on one thing every day by instinct I would say “eight hours<\/strong>“. To avoid these errors it is important to have objective data<\/strong> on which to base our choices and analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The worklog recording <\/strong>is the basis for good planning<\/strong>, not just for good cost c<\/strong>ontrol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I know very well that this is an additional effort and in fact when I tell our clients to record the “lost” hours, the first reaction I get is of the “reluctant \/ snorting \/ I get up and walk away” type.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is why it is important that the worklog registration activity is as “painless” as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On this point Twproject is unbeatable<\/strong>; you can record the worklog<\/a> at the close of the To-do, with the start-stop buttons, on one \/ two \/ three weeks, on the whole month day-by-day, etc .. The overhead is minimal!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n With the aim of “measuring<\/strong>” routine activities, having a “cauldron<\/strong>” available where you can put everything that cannot be traced back to a project greatly lightens the recording by helping us to “reach 8<\/strong>“.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We always advise our customers to create a non-project “cauldron” (or “basket” or “BAU” Business As Usual for the more chic ones) which starts on 1\/1 and ends on 12\/31 for the recording of non-project activities .<\/p>\n\n\n\n After a few months of recordings, you can better understand how long our resources can really devote to their projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It also happens that it is necessary to take a look at what went into the “cauldron”; perhaps it could be structured to better “classify” routine activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example this is what we use in Twproject<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n We understand how to use the worklog to calculate the hours<\/a><\/strong> we can devote to “real projects”, but how do routine “projects” behave from a work-load point of view?<\/p>\n\n\n\n More or less like real projects. The effort is “spread” evenly over the period. Let’s take an example: my support activity to the development team takes me “on average” one hour a day. Duration and effort in workload: which is the difference?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Project Activities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Twproject <\/strong>allows you to plan all the hours or just a part by assigning them directly on the calendar (there are various tools to do this), but the substance does not change; 20h needs to be done in the 10 days of the phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\nBalance your resource as we do!<\/h3>\n
Routine Activities: Do you work eight hours a day?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
There is a small difference: they do not have incremental feedback<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If I don’t get support requests today, it’s not necessarily true that I will receive twice as much tomorrow.
In practice, the effort<\/a><\/strong> is considered constant over the entire period.
Its graphical representation is a constant bar:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"employee's](\"https:\/\/twproject.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/routine-assig-840x130.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"employee's](\"https:\/\/twproject.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/routine-workload-840x187.png\")
![\"new](\"https:\/\/twproject.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/project-assig-840x130.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"project](\"https:\/\/twproject.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/project-workload-840x198.png\")
![\"spot](\"https:\/\/twproject.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/spot-assig-840x121.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/twproject.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/to-do-840x73.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"effect](\"https:\/\/twproject.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/spot-workload-840x239.png\")