Time-tracking for TFS work items?

Question

Does anyone know if there is a way to track the time spent working on a work item?  I'm thinking of something like a "clock-in/clock-out" feature, so a developer can record the actual time spent working on a particular task, etc.

I assume that if there isn't a built-in way to do this, there might be a way to build this in as custom functionality.  Any ideas/guidance?

Updated Question:  Perhaps I should have stated this better earlier... TFS work items obviously have a field or two in which a developer can enter the total time spent on a project, but what I'm looking for is a way to help track and calculate that total time, based on a mechanism (like a chess timer, for example) which would allow a user to "clock in" when he/she begins working on an item, and then "clock out" when he/she stops (and this would repeat for the same item until the user has completed it).  I guess you could think of it as something like a self-documenting work audit, which could be reported on to show how much time a developer spent each day working on various projects/work items.  A single field to record total time spent on a work item simply doesn't have the level of granularity to achieve this.

Answer 1

You are correct, there is built in mechanism for this. You could modify the workitem and add those fields, but it is up to the developer to to use them. I personally do not think that TFS is a good mechanism for time tracking though.

-paul

Answer 2

Could this be of help???

One is to add a field in the workitems, where the person working on the workitem can enter his timings, as this field is mandatory.

Or else a better idea would be to create a custom check-in policy, where the person when trying to check-in has to update a field in the workitem pertaining to time or effort. A similar example is provided in April2006 Visual Studio SDK.

 

 

Answer 3

hi,

I created something like this..

- check the history for the assigned to field...
and get the date of the first occurence of the particular person in the history...
then get the next occurence if it has been resolved or closed or changed assigned to.. then i will get the difference of the dates..

in that way, i dont need to ask developers  to input something about time,,,

Answer 4

I am looking for an addon for VSTS to do this as well

J.Nail explains it perfectly, as a chess time clock

Answer 5

Someone has created this functionality already, but unfortunately it seems not public available.

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=515276&SiteID=1

 

Answer 6

Which is a shame...
But i guess they'll bundle it up and sell it to us later ;-)

Answer 7

@Paul Hacker

This conversation is pretty old, but I would like to renew it and hear your opinion about new versions of TFS, i.e. TFS2010. We are considering options for time tracking and because we just implemented TFS for Source Control, we would like to use it for Time tracking also. Could you please explain why do you think that TFS is not good for time tracking and have you maybe changed your opinion in mean time, because of new versions of TFS?

I would appreciate if someone who used TFS for time tracking could share own experience and opinion here.

TnX in advance!

Nemanja

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Answer 8

Ive used it personaly for time tracking in development projects and have watched others use it for time tracking.

Overall I can say thats it is still not a Time Reporting system.

You can keep track of time (spent and remaing)  fairly easy, if you brake down work to fine granulary task performed by individuals.You have to use reporting, excel or MS Project to get time rolled up.

If you realy want to use it as an exact instrument for messuring the time spent, it requires control and diciplin, espesially in larger projects.

There is several tools and addons, both for clock in/clock out and for timesheet reporting.

 

 

Answer 9

Ive used it personaly for time tracking in development projects and have watched others use it for time tracking.

Overall I can say thats it is still not a Time Reporting system.

You can keep track of time (spent and remaing)  fairly easy, if you brake down work to fine granulary task performed by individuals.You have to use reporting, excel or MS Project to get time rolled up.

If you realy want to use it as an exact instrument for messuring the time spent, it requires control and diciplin, espesially in larger projects.

There is several tools and addons, both for clock in/clock out and for timesheet reporting.

 

 

Any chance you can offer some suggestions?  

Answer 10

I'd love it if we could use TFS for time tracking either with a "number of hours" entered or a start and end time. Right now we're using helpdesk software for time keeping while all of the actual work is recorded in TFS, and I hate keeping bug information in two different places.

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Answer 11

With TX Chrono you can do all sorts of time-tracking for all WI, i think. 

http://www.teamexpand.com/product/tx-chrono