3 Reasons for Using Time Tracking in Agile Process
Tags: Time Tracking, Agile, Agile Methodology, Agile Development, Time Management

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When working on a team project, several factors can influence its completion timing and the overall quality of the finished product. It’s not very difficult for things to go awry quickly. After all, multiple team members have various responsibilities that may halt the rest of the project’s progress. Often, if one person works on one piece at a time, a single issue could lead to a project delay.

Once all components are added to the final product, there may only be time for a quick review from the project manager before something is rushed into the hands of the client. The product is then quickly sold on the market, despite being possibly filled with flaws.

For software developers, this is an issue they would commonly face when needing to create and combine the coding for their clients. The process of developing codes and eventually releasing them on the market would take years due to the difficulty of staying organized and efficient. Furthermore, once the software hit the market, any flaws that users discovered could not be retroactively fixed. The past systems for software development projects were failing and needed to be changed. This is what led to the creation of the agile process.

What Is The Agile Process?

The Agile Manifesto was established in the early 2000s by software developers who wanted to:

Produce software faster Make new software accessible to the market sooner Get feedback from those exploring their new software and continue to make the necessary adjustments even after the software has been released

These developers designed the agile process to improve their teams’ functionality when coding new software systems. It offers a platform for every step involved in the project.

With this methodology, the clients’ outlined expectations and requirements are inputted for everyone’s reference, and can be constantly revisited. With this access, the team can brainstorm and plan ideas that will create a software product to meet the clients’ needs and, more importantly, the market audience will want.

Agility improves efficiency. As the project manager, you can evaluate the steps involved in the process and assign them according to their employees involved and their skills. That way, more can be completed in a faster manner as everyone works on their tasks at once rather than step by step.

By implementing the agile process, you will remain in control by approving your employees’ drafts before merging them. Once all drafts are approved, the team can upload their parts into a shared outline for review. This combined draft will allow you and your team to recognize anything missing or that should be omitted.

The numerous stages of review and revision will lead to a successful final result. This will positively reflect your business’ quality of work and keep clients coming back.

How Does It Improve Productivity?

A major component of the agile process is accountability. By designing a roadmap with appointed deadlines for every step, everyone must function at their best and on time. If they fail to meet them, they will delay the product development process, causing a negative ripple effect.

Implementing this system for project management entails constant monitoring, revising and redrafting until the details are correct. There are numerous opportunities to recognize an error that may have gone unnoticed otherwise. That way, there will be no need for backtracking or restarting from scratch. This is the main reason why companies are enforcing Agile to save them much time and money.

With the help of software tools, you can successfully implement agile development, but timeliness is key. To navigate the flow of your project development, you need to track your team’s labor and productivity.

How Can Time Tracking Help the Agile Process?

Time tracking is the background assistant to help guide the project along. As the project manager, you have the opportunity to view your team’s productivity and properly design the roadmap for product development. The benefits of using time tracking during the agile process will be ongoing, but here are some concrete examples.

1. Measure Employee Time and Productivity

Time tracking software includes timesheets for employees to mark the hours committed to their assigned tasks. From tracking, you may learn that some take more or less time and effort than others. With the help of time tracking software, you can monitor and reconfigure your task designation for an even workload among your team members.

Using time tracking, you can make certain decisions that will improve efficiency of your product development. As the project manager, you can reassess the designation of tasks and recognize issues that may be more time-consuming and require further delegation. You’ll also learn a lot about your employee productivity levels. With this information, you can adapt to follow the scheduled timeline to your project completion. This will save the cost of overtime labor or a dissatisfied client.

2. Determine Charges to Your Client

Time tracking will also serve as a valuable resource when billing your clients. While they may have paid a flat rate for your services before the project, you’ll at least know what to charge in the future.

You’ll gain an understanding of labor hours recorded per project stage and in total once the project is completed. When originally billing a client, you may not have considered the hours spent on brainstorming/briefing, or the numerous review/revision stages.

With time tracking, the numbers speak for themselves. By relying on tracking software, you’ll have the organized platform to recognize the cost to your own business that the project could incur and the appropriate compensation. Over time, implementing time tracking data when billing clients could bring higher profits your way.

3. Data That Will Improve Future Efficiency

With the help of time tracking software, you’ll learn how much time is required for completing each stage of the agile process, when your employees are at their most productive. You’ll understand the average work hours required for projects and their divided tasks, which will offer a standard for future project planning.

By extracting the data from past projects, you can set realistic deadlines and distribute tasks evenly so they can be completed on time if your employees are working at the highest productivity levels. You’ll be able to incorporate timing expectations for planning, revising that may have been overlooked before time tracking, causing delayed project completion and possible conflict with clients. It’s important for your business’ reputation that you meet or exceed your clients’ expectations by completing projects on time. This will improve your relationship with them for continued trust in future projects and possibly bring in more clientele who want reliable, efficient developers completing their projects.

How Can You Start Time Tracking?

It’s important to rely on a platform that will track your team’s hours and the length of the project’s distinguished stages. Software like actiTIME will make it easy for agile project managers to monitor your team members’ productivity levels which impact the efficiency of a product’s development.

Ultimately, this software offers support for project managers to keep the project development process moving swiftly and without any delay or costs. In the end, with more awareness of the timeliness of projects completed by team members who are working at their most efficient, you will face higher profits and an expanded client base.