Saturday, December 20, 2008

Why write Worklog Assistant?

Hassle-free time tracking for JIRA

When I first started using JIRA, I was very impressed as it is:
  • Flexible
  • Open
However, as I began using it, some things jumped out at me. I could live with all of them except one: logging work done against issues.

I've used quite a few bug tracking systems that had some sort of time tracking built-in. In the best case, I could enter the time worked against an issue manually. In the worst case, I'd have to login to a separate timesheet system, do the math in my head, find the right field in the right spot and hopefully get it right. Needless to say, my timesheets began to say 8 hours for some random category, Monday to Friday, holiday or not (quite funny now that I think about it!) I can't remember how many times my boss rejected my timesheets only to get random but realistic looking guesses back.

Oh, I'd also have to remember to put in "time spent" when closing any bugs. Not fun.

With JIRA, we pretty much had the best case I had experienced in my time. However, after using it religiously, I realized that it was still too painful to bear. Worklogs again began deteriorating into random guesses. So I started using a separate time tracker that I wrote myself. It turned out that even this wasn't good enough because I had to remember to log time. I am notorious for forgetting to do stuff if it isn't in the bug tracking system. Fail.

In my ideal world, I would never open up JIRA to do any worklog related stuff. In my ideal world, I would never do the math again. In my ideal world, I could just do all my timesheets in JIRA.

Enter Worklog Assistant for JIRA.

Worklog Assistant is the client end of the loop. With it, I have been able to track exactly how long I work on something and how bad I am off my estimates. This in turn has helped to improve my estimates (surprise!)

Indeed, I used Worklog Assistant to track the development of itself.

I believe it is time to realize that timesheets for JIRA do not have to be painful. Worklog Assistant is here (ok, not here yet, still in closed beta!)

About this blog

We strongly believe that tracking your time properly is the first step to deterministic software development. If you feel that you have been guessing or you can't be bothered to remember to log time, Worklog Assistant might be for you!

Give it a try!

Please download a free 30-day trial today by clicking on the link below: Download