Product Owners in agile teams are responsible for maximizing product value. To achieve this and ensure optimal performance, productivity, effective stakeholder management, and project success, they have to make several decisions.
And such intelligent decisions can only be made if backed by accurate data and key agile metrics. Time tracking is one of the most critical projects management metrics. However, time tracking in agile teams can seem contradictory as all events are already time-boxed. So why is it so crucial for agile team members to maintain timesheets?
This has something to do with the fact that recording time leads to awareness and change. Only when we know how we spend our time we can use it better.
Top 3 advantages of timesheets to drive better decision
Timesheets provide an accurate representation of the time each user spends on various tasks, projects, or stories. This data helps Product Owners make better decisions and achieve the following:
1. Reduce time wastage and increase team capacity
Timesheets are the best method of tracking individual time spent on various tasks. They give you increased visibility into activities that may take longer than necessary. Product Owners can analyze timesheets and break down each story to identify roadblocks and eliminate unnecessary tasks. Timesheets help users and Product Owners manage time better, become more organized and improve team efficiency.
2. Improve project management
Time tracking apps and timesheets are invaluable tools for effective agile project management. They enable Product Owners and Project Managers to improve project management by allowing them to:
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Analyze time usage, determine the skills of the agile team, and allocate resources to tasks for which they’re best suited.
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Identify areas or skills in which teams need additional training.
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Monitor project progress and predict delays and roadblocks to mitigate them early and stay on schedule.
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Get a complete overview of projects and measure overall project efficiency.
3. Facilitate accurate billing
Agile teams are cross-functional, and one user may work on multiple projects at a time. Time tracking apps that allow users to log time against projects improve the accuracy of billing and invoicing clients.
An essential component of the Agile framework is continuous introspection, improvement, and change. Whether your team practices SAFe, Scrum, Kanban, or a mix of each, time tracking apps and timesheets provide a wealth of information to facilitate better decision-making, task optimization, and increase team efficiencies.
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