I’m struggling with a time tracking issue at my job. We use Jira to log our hours, but I often finish tasks quickly and end up with extra time. My manager suggests filling my backlog, but that’s not always feasible.
I’m curious about a few things:
Do you experience similar challenges with logging time?
How does your team measure productivity?
Is the recorded time a reliable indicator of an engineer’s productivity?
I’d love to hear your thoughts and any advice you might have. Thanks for sharing your experiences!
time tracking’s a pain, i feel ya. we ditched jira hours for more flexible metrics. focus on what u actually achieve, not just hours logged. maybe talk to ur boss about using sprint goals or feature completion instead? works better for us & less stress about fillin time.
I’ve been in your shoes, and it’s definitely a tricky situation. At my previous company, we faced similar issues with time tracking. What worked for us was implementing a hybrid approach. We still logged hours, but we also started tracking ‘impact metrics’ - things like number of successful deployments, reduction in bugs, or improvements in system performance.
This gave a more holistic view of productivity beyond just hours worked. It also helped justify those times when we finished tasks quickly - we could point to the positive impact instead of just the time spent.
Have you considered proposing something similar to your manager? It might help bridge the gap between traditional time tracking and more meaningful productivity measures. Just a thought based on what worked for us. Good luck!
Time tracking in DevOps can be tricky, and I’ve faced similar challenges. In my experience, strict hour logging doesn’t always reflect true productivity. Our team shifted focus to measuring outcomes rather than hours worked. We use a combination of sprint velocity, story points completed, and key performance indicators specific to our projects. This approach has been more effective in gauging productivity and allows for flexibility when tasks are completed quickly. It’s also reduced the pressure to ‘fill’ time artificially. Have you considered discussing alternative productivity metrics with your manager? It might lead to a more accurate representation of your team’s output and value.