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A NEW WEB-BASED PROJECT AND EMPLOYEE TIME TRACKING SYSTEM FOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT
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Abstract
Project and Time Tracking System (PTTS) is a web application that provides an automated and
centralized method of tracking and monitoring work time for active projects by enabling supervisors
to track employees work time, efforts spent while working on various projects performing tasks
assigned to them. This system helps in completing projects on-time and on-budget by providing realtime
project status. Also it optimizes resources utilization and measure the performance and
productivity. One important advantage of the system over others is that each employee can log into his
account to do various tasks. Employees, Supervisors and Project managers have different privileges
according to their roles. PTTS performance testing successful at Qatar Petroleum (QP) Data Center.
Keywords- Project Management System; Portfolio Management; Time Management; Web
Application.
1 INTRODUCTION
How to determine, manage and balance the right mix of projects is crucial to any organizations
operating in a multiproject environment. Recently, Project Portfolio Management (PPM) has become
prevalent; it is expected that multiple projects under a single management umbrella will deliver
benefits that will not be possible if the projects were managed independently [1–4]. Furthermore,
while multiple projects run in parallel and demand the same resource simultaneously, frequent
conflicts are inevitable [5, 6]. Strategically, PPM aims to maximize the value of the projects as a
whole, balance the portfolio relative to reward and risk, and align projects to business objectives [7, 8,
9].
Operationally, PPM organizes a series of projects into a single portfolio of reports that capture project
timelines, accomplishments, resource consumption, costs, and other critical factors [10]. With this
comprehensive framework, executives can then regularly review entire portfolios, spread resources
appropriately and adjust projects to produce the highest returns. According to [11, 12], PPM is a
dynamic process where active projects are constantly reviewed and modified and new initiatives are
evaluated, selected and prioritized. During this process, resources are coordinated and reallocated
among projects while contradicting schedule targets would be rearranged to make resources suffice
and maintain equilibrium within the portfolio [13–15]. Generally, these systems evaluate a project
European, Mediterranean & Middle Eastern Conference on Information Systems 2010 (EMCIS2010)
April 12-13 2010, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Somaya Al-maadeed et al.
A New Web-Based Project and Employee Time Tracking System for Project Management
2
portfolio through multi criteria analysis that searches for benefit maximization and risk minimization
[16, 17, 18, 19]. Furthermore, during the operation of the project portfolio, it is necessary to
periodically reprioritize and reschedule all projects and reallocate resources in the managerial process
[20, 21]. According to recent study, 90% of managers feel that their most important topic is portfolio
management for projects and applications. If implemented correctly, a solid Time Tracking System
(TTS) approach to managing projects within an organization can make a real difference and help make
the often tough decisions required in today’s challenging times [22].
@task, Cardinis, Clarity, Daptiv, EnterPlicity, Genius Inside, Instant Business Network, Microsoft
Office Project Server, Oracle Projects, and Planisware are popular software for project time tracking
and project portfolio. However, according to our initial study the above systems do not fulfill many
requirements. The proposed time tracking system is designed specifically for one organization (QP)
needs and can be further implemented in many organization. Therefore, Time Tracking System (TTS)
is used to monitor the employee and make sure that employees work as planned for each project. One
important advantage of the proposed system over others is that each employee can log on his\her
account using a unique ID number and a password.
The general objective is to build a time management system involving portfolio evaluation, decision
making, and support functions. With timely information about the status of the portfolio and resource
availability, the focus is placed on resource interdependencies and the mutual compatibility between
projects at the aggregate level. Furthermore, An effective Project Portfolio Scheduling System (PPSS)
is essential to convert each project into an operating timetable and maintain the portfolio’s
performance in a timely manner.
This paper presents a web-based Project and Time Tracking System that can be used in any
organization. The system is the first management system used to manage time and resource with
integration with Microsoft Project software. Our goal in this paper is to automate the process of time
management using a new designed database.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows; Section two is a definition of project portfolios in
general. A system overview is provided in Section three. A description of the database and GUIs that
support the design of the FDMS is presented in sections 4 and 5, respectively. System functionality is
explained in section 6. Finally, we conclude in section 7.
2 PROJECT PORTFOLIOS
Projects and project portfolios represent the management control mechanism for driving change. The
project portfolio represents the collective vision of where the organization is trying to go and how to
get there. The project portfolio is nothing short of the vehicle for achieving the company vision.
Although, the order of implementation is strictly driven by priorities, the successful PPM
implementations may start from the following three domains, build success and then expand to the
other domains: Manage Supply and Demand (Request Management), Prioritize the Project Portfolio
and aligned it with business needs, and Deliver Projects and Applications
As shown in Figure 1, the above domains need to be supported with the following components:
Resource Management, Time Management, and Reporting. Those are explained in the following
subsections.
European, Mediterranean & Middle Eastern Conference on Information Systems 2010 (EMCIS2010)
April 12-13 2010, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Somaya Al-maadeed et al.
A New Web-Based Project and Employee Time Tracking System for Project Management
3
Figure1. Project Portfolio and Performance Mgmt System for QP Data Centre
3 PTTS STRUCTURE
In this paper we built a web-based Project and Time Tracking System (suite of integrated Modules).
The software development process followed the Iterative/Incremental Development Technique, in
which the various modules of the system are developed at different times, and integrated as they are
completed. Objected Oriented analysis and design using UML is selected for the system analysis and
design. The main subcomponents are as in the following diagram:
Figure 2. Main subcomponents of the web-based Project and Time Tracking System
European, Mediterranean & Middle Eastern Conference on Information Systems 2010 (EMCIS2010)
April 12-13 2010, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Somaya Al-maadeed et al.
A New Web-Based Project and Employee Time Tracking System for Project Management
4
Project and Tasks Setup is initially, project details and full list of project tasks with their assigned
resources need to be setup in the system. Time Entry is a timesheet is created by each resource, for a
predetermined time period to where the user fills actual work time on assigned tasks. After completely
filling the timesheet it is to be submitted for approval. Time Approval is Manager/Supervisor
approves timesheets submitted by resources for a particular time period according to a pre-defined
approval workflow. Time Posting defined as MS-Project plans are updated with actual work time
from approved timesheets. User Authentication is Access to the different functions in the system is
controlled by allocating each resource the required access levels. This access rights would be
identified as the user login to the system. The default levels are: Timesheet Entry (ability to enter own
timesheet only), Manager/Supervisor (can perform authorization functions and approve timesheets),
Project Manager (performs project setup and approves timesheets for assigned projects). Administrator
(can perform all functions, including database administration and security). Reporting and
Dashboarding is a reporting tool to deliver comprehensive project status and time reports in various
ways.
4 DETAIL DESIGN
This section describes the detailed architectural design for the project and time tracking system. It
specifies the different classes in the system using class diagram. In the database the system has the
following tables: TeamMember, Timesheet, TimesheetStatus, WorkUnit, Calender,
CalenderEntryType, Section, Project, Task, ProjectStatus, ProjectGroup, Assignment,
ProjectResources, Role, RolePrivilege, Privilege, TimesheetStatus, LogTeamMemberRole.
Many team members work in section each section managed by one section head .Many team
members supervised by supervisor , administrator , project manager and section head .Each section
managed in many projects .projects managed by project manager. The rest of the relations between
entities are shown in the following figure:
Figure 3 The project and employee time tracking system class diagram
European, Mediterranean & Middle Eastern Conference on Information Systems 2010 (EMCIS2010)
April 12-13 2010, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Somaya Al-maadeed et al.
A New Web-Based Project and Employee Time Tracking System for Project Management
5
5 IMPLEMENTATION AND DEPLOYMENT
During deployment design, the components specified in the logical architecture are mapped to a
physical environment, producing high-level deployment architecture. An implementation
specification, which provides low-level details specifying how to build the deployment architecture, is
created. Additionally, we created a series of plans and specifications that detail different aspects of
implementing and software solution are created. For the project and time tracking system, a MPXJ
“Microsoft project exchange java” library was used to retrieve data from Microsoft project and vise
verse. Oracle 9i was used for database operations, including the storage and retrieval of login
information, as well as submission data. Successfully logging into the system, users are taken to an
action page that dynamically presents options to them based on their privileges if it’s an administrator,
manager or team member. Java servlets and JSP “JavaServer Pages” was used in implementation of
this system. A servlet extends the functionality of a server, such a Webserver that serves Webpages to
a user’s browser using the HTTP protocol. JSP technology provides a simplified, fast way to create
web pages that display dynamically-generated content. The following image shows screenshot of
timesheet to be filled by employees.
Figure 4. snapshot of a team member's timesheet
For the interfaces we used Jboss tools which is a pluggins contain some of the tools used for designing
the interfaces such as: buttons, radio buttons and chick boxes…etc. These tools generate an xhtml
codes that contains the properties for each component and its action, Database implementation
During the development of the system, data for the testing of different functionalities was needed to be
imported into the database tables. The tables in the database are filled using two different ways .The
first way is to fill the tables by importing the data from a Microsoft project document that contains the
data that is needed. The second way is by using the integration with Microsoft project by using the
MPXJ to retrieve data.
European, Mediterranean & Middle Eastern Conference on Information Systems 2010 (EMCIS2010)
April 12-13 2010, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Somaya Al-maadeed et al.
A New Web-Based Project and Employee Time Tracking System for Project Management
6
The following are the system requirements: Login Validation operation, Create a Timesheet, Open
Created Timesheet, Populate Timesheet with Tasks, Fill timesheet with actual, Submit Timesheet,
Change Password Review submitted timesheets, Approve timesheet, Create a New Project Delete a
Project, Update project Details, and Create/Update project plan (tasks) Maintain resource Privilege.
The requirements were all fulfilled in the implementation phase of the system.
6 TESTING AND EVALUATION
Software Testing is the process of validating and verifying that a system meets the business and
technical requirements. It also provides information about the quality of the product or service under
test, with respect to the context in which it is intended to operate.
In this paper Project and Time Tracking System (PTTS) was developed for Qatar Petroleum (QP)
Technical service department – Data Center (EED). The testing techniques that have been used to test
the PTTS are: unit testing, and system testing. In this Section a description of the testing procedures
will be detailed against the initial system functional and non functional requirements.