What to Do with a Manager Who Wants to Track Time
Recently, an Agile Mentors Community member asked the community what they thought about his manager who was asking to track developer’s time on tasks. The manager claimed that time tracking was necessary to understand spending on development of a particular technology.
The community had a lot to say about this topic and contemplated whether this manager was inhibiting the team’s ability to be agile.
Is There a Lack of Buy-in from the Business?
One member suggested that there may be a lack of buy-in and understanding from the business if they need to justify spending in such a tactical way. He added that if the organization was aligned on prioritization ahead of time, this concern may be alleviated.
Creating a Culture of Trust
Another member indicated that this organization is probably lacking trust, a common phenomenon in companies that are new to agile.
“It is so much nicer to work in an environment where there is trust, and tracking time is quite often a symptom of non-trust or non-thought about output, success and value,” he added.
Trust is a two-way street, however. If the team is giving a reason for the manager not to trust them, then it needs to be addressed.
Track Time, But Only for the Team
Mike Cohn joined the conversation saying, “I’m okay with tracking time if (if! if!) the team wants to do it. After all, it can shed a lot of insight on things. But I’d only do it fairly short term as it takes time to track time.”
When a manager wants to track time it’s almost always used against the team, added Mike. He said he hoped that if the manager is asking the team to track time, that he is tracking his own time and openly sharing it with them.
Instead of looking at every ticket and tracking time there, Mike suggested looking at the aggregate. So, for example, track the average number of tickets fixed per person each week. Then change the conversation to be relative. We can do more tickets if you’d like, but what would we cut instead?
If You Have to Track Time, Don’t Track it Individually
I chimed in at this point, saying that sometimes a new manager needs to see that the team is meeting its commitments, so tracking time for a short time period may be okay, but it should be tracked for the entire team—not individuals. When we start looking at people individually, it adds a lot of friction between team members, people start gaming estimation and it doesn’t build in the idea of teamwork.
I then added, “So, if a team must track time on a task, collect those metrics holistically and then present them to the boss.”
Remember also to use this as a coaching moment with the new boss and explain how agile companies value teamwork and results versus individual contributions and output.
Product Spending is the Product Owner’s Responsibility
Another member made the keen observation that how funding is spent on development is actually the job of a product owner, not a development manager. The development manager’s role is to ensure that the team has the necessary skills to do their jobs—not to assess how much is spent on various technologies.
Calculate the Cost Per Story Point
A member who works for a large healthcare provider that creates wellness software told the story of how they were able to convince the finance department that they could track the team time via story points.
They knew their velocity and could predict how many new features released each sprint. They calculated the cost per point based on the entire team’s salary. After each sprint, they sent the number of points completed to finance as opposed to hours tracked per individual.
Use Time Tracking Data for Staffing Insights, Not Performance
The member who posted the discussion took all of the members’ comments into action! He decided it would be a good idea to suggest that they use the time tracking data to determine if they need more team members.
He came back to the community a week later to say:
“It worked out pretty well! We convinced our manager to allow us to only track story points and see how that pans out for a couple sprints. The team was able to show him that we could just keep refining our tickets, which would improve estimates and ensure we’re delivering the most valuable stories.”
He added, “We’ve definitely gotten better at breaking down tickets to really think about what’s all involved and re-check that estimate. I feel that this focus on story points has also redirected the team’s focus towards ‘what is the value of this’ in addition to ‘how do we build it’.”
To join the conversation and to hear more comments from team members and leaders on agile time tracking, join the Agile Mentors Community. Visit https:www.agilementors.comwww.agilementors.com for more information on membership.