ALM: User Guide

While you work on a task, you can log the time spent on it. When a task or request is completed, the system can also ask you to enter the time spent.

To make counting the time spent easier, you can use the timer widget (a stopwatch). While you work on a task, start the timer. When you finish the task or switch to another task, stop the timer. The timer widget is available on task and story/request view forms, and from the "Start timer" context menu for an artifact. When the timer is started on another artifact, the last active timer stops.

When you log effort, the application offers you a choice of:

• the time counted by the timer widget (on a blue background);
• typical effort values (on an orange background);
• the time the requirement or task has spent in the current state (on a green background). For example, set the task status to "In progress" before you start, and when you complete it the application calculates the time you spent on that task.

To use your own scale of typical effort values (the numbers on the orange background), you can define a constant in the file htdocs/settings_server.php

define('SPENT_TIME_SHORTCUTS', [10/60, 15/60, 45/60]);

Array items (the corresponding scale items) are specified in hours.

Reports

The "Time spent" report analyzes effort from different angles: by person, by project, by requirement, and by task. Effort can be exported to Excel for the people who need it. The "Time entries" module shows and filters the whole set of time entries, and you can edit the date, assignee, description, and other parameters.

You can add custom attributes to time entries, for example an "overtime" flag, or a classification by activity type.

System settings can change the limit on how many hours an employee can log in a day.

Plan versus actual

Planned effort in hours can be specified for tasks that detail the implementation of an enhancement, a story (or another requirement). To see planned effort by type of work, use the "Effort by issues" and "Effort by requirements" reports.

Tracking overtime

To track overtime, you can add a custom attribute of type "Flag" to the "Time entry" entity. The flag is shown on the time-entry form, so the employee can indicate whether this entry is overtime. In the "Time entries" module you can filter overtime entries with the built-in filters.

Approving timesheets

To run a process for approving (signing off) timesheets, turn on the corresponding methodology option in the project settings. In the "Time entries" module you can filter unapproved entries and set the flag with a bulk operation or separately for each entry. Only approved entries are included in every effort report in the system.

Logging time for another employee

To allow effort to be logged for another employee, open the attribute access rights for the "Time entry" entity. For the role you need, set access to "Modify" for the attribute "Time entry.Participant".

Preventing entries for past periods

To stop participants from logging effort (or changing entry parameters) for past periods, configure the access rights as follows:

• Allow view only for the attribute "Time entry.Date"
• Allow view only for the entity "Past time entries".

Setting limits