So we’ve told you why we estimate and how we use hourglass to check the truth of those estimates but is it really a huuuuge deal if a project takes a bit longer or costs a bit more?
Well, yeah!
We’ve decided that time tracking keeps everyone honest. Honest about estimates. Honest about costs. Honest about the amount of work something takes AND the amount of work you put in. We don’t have Honest Abe as one of our company mascots at LunarLincoln for nothing.
While some of those attributes above are basic project metrics (cost, timeline, etc) and seem pretty obvious as to why time tracking is important we also think that last component is super important too – the amount of work a person puts in. Time tracking keeps everyone (the team and the company) honest to their commitment.
Remember in school when you had to do group projects? And there was always that one kid that didn’t really help but somehow got the same grade and credit as everyone else? Were you the kid that had to pick up the extra weight because you wanted the A and you were an incorrigible overachiever?
No? Just me? Oh.
We time track at LunarLincoln because I’m totally over those kinds of people in the group project. All of software development is a group project and time tracking helps our team pull as one. Everyone has a set number of hours to commit to. No more. No less. No slackers. No stress.
At LunarLincoln, Hourglass is how we measure everyone’s work for the week. When a developer has tracked 32 hours of time to JIRA tickets for the week, they go home. No “can you stay late?”. No “we told the client we could do this by tomorrow.”. Those estimates and all of our commitments are bound by the time we track in Hourglass. (As a sidenote: If you want to learn more about the magic number of 32 – we go into more detail on our company blog here.)
Either way – Hourglass is a great tool not only for time tracking to estimates but about honest effort and maintaining an even level of work for everyone. Each time you log time to a ticket, you’re adding to your own Friday escape. Try it yourself sometime. (It’s great)