Cross-departmental time tracking in large enterprises with Jira Software and Tempo for Jira

Sooner or later, every company faces the question of recording its employees' working hours. Who spends how much time on which project is important information for project management and controlling. By evaluating and analyzing time tracking, key figures are available that enable management to draw conclusions about the company's productivity.

A globally operating information technology group faced the challenge of implementing a new time tracking system. The previous solution proved to be too one-sided and too complicated. They were looking for a time tracking system for all departments that is easy to use, offers convenient functions for evaluating working hours, and, above all, enjoys high acceptance among employees – especially also outside the development department. The company found the right partner for the implementation in catworkx.

Within the company, Jira Software was already being used by the development department. The company also possessed a license for the app "Tempo for Jira," which enables simple and, above all, user-friendly time tracking. While the employees from the development department were accustomed to booking working time and effort against finely granular activities due to the existing systems and structures, it was a major change for employees outside of development: here, only a very rough recording of times on 25 global cost centers had been carried out in the previously used SAP system. An effective and clear provision of data for controlling was difficult in this case, as a large amount of time was booked on overarching collective processes.

While the concept envisioned using the already existing time tracking tool ("Tempo for Jira") for all employees in the company, it was also necessary to gradually introduce employees outside of development to booking time on finely detailed activities. Experience with the previous system (SAP) led to employees being skeptical of a new time tracking system. The obvious solution was to transfer the data from the 25 cost centers in the SAP system to 25 Jira collective issues, thus creating a similar application environment.

However, the growth of time-logs entailed certain consequential problems. If a task is stored in Jira as a rough collective task to which a large number of employees post their times, then the number of worklogs grows immeasurably. Such endless processes cause performance problems in the long run if the process is not reset regularly. The problem was solved by a special archive concept developed by catworkx, which was implemented in the company.

The use of Jira Software in conjunction with the "Tempo for Jira" app for time tracking has now gained acceptance among employees even outside the development department. Together with the archiving concept from catworkx, the solution has been further professionalized and tailored to the company's needs. Management also benefits from this: at the push of a button and from the dashboard, meaningful reports can now be created quickly and clearly.