Questions With Better Sources

Once a time system exists it becomes the place people go for any question involving people and effort. Several of those questions have better sources.

"Is this project on track?"

Time data says how much effort was spent, not how much remains.

Better source: the delivery plan and what has actually been completed. Effort against estimate is an input to that judgement, not a substitute for it.

"Are we understaffed?"

Hours recorded rise to fill whatever is committed, so high hours indicate commitment rather than need.

Better source: capacity derived from actuals against the committed pipeline, plus the hours-beyond-contracted measure, plus asking. Those three together answer it; hours alone do not.

"Why was this late?"

The timesheet shows effort, not elapsed time or dependency.

Better source: elapsed time against effort, which reveals the waiting, and then the people involved for the reason.

"Who should we promote?"

The time system holds no signal on this. Hours reflect the work assigned; billable percentage reflects the type of work assigned.

Better source: the work itself and the judgement of people who see it. This is the question this whole collection most strongly argues against answering from time data.

"Is someone taking advantage?"

If this question is being asked seriously, the answer is a management conversation, not a report.

And the data would mislead: the person recording fewer hours may be the one doing the invisible work nobody counts.

"How much does an hour of our time cost?"

Salary divided by contracted hours understates it substantially, because the denominator includes time that does not go to work.

Better source: cost divided by actually-recorded productive effort, which is the capacity factor, and the resulting figure is usually a surprise.

"What is our real utilisation?"

Answerable, but only in aggregate and only if unbilled work is recorded.

Where individual targets exist, the figure is unreliable by construction, because the target shapes the recording.

How to redirect

Say what the time data does support, which is usually adjacent.

Name the better source rather than only refusing.

Where the better source does not exist, say that too — sometimes the honest answer is that nobody is measuring the thing being asked about, and that is a finding rather than a failure of the timesheet.

Do not produce a weak answer from the wrong data because it is the data available. It circulates without the caveat, and the next question arrives with the same expectation.

Saying the measurement does not exist

Sometimes the honest answer is that nobody is measuring the thing being asked about.

That is a finding, not a failure of the timesheet.

Say what would be needed to answer it and roughly what it would cost.

Do not produce a weak answer from the wrong data because that data is what exists.

It circulates without the caveat, and the next request arrives with the same expectation and less patience.

A clear "we do not know, and here is what it would take to find out" is a better answer than a number nobody can defend.

Redirecting without refusing

The response that keeps you useful.

Name what the time data does support, which is usually adjacent.

Name the better source for what was asked.

Where the better source does not exist, say so — that is a finding about the organisation's measurement, not a failure of the timesheet.

Offer to help find it rather than producing a weak substitute.

A question redirected to the right source is answered; one answered from the wrong data circulates without its caveat and returns as an expectation.

Connect policy to configuration

The practical choices behind this note can be compared with see the documented scenario. Keep the organisation's written purpose in control of the setup, enable only the data needed for that purpose and review the result with affected users.