Project Activity Tracking

[Carl Miller <ccm -at- MAYBERRY -dot- CRAY -dot- COM>]

I was fortunate to be able to attend the post-conference workshop put on
in Dallas last June by Pat Smith (Patricia Caernarven-Smith).  "The Real
Costs of Technical Publications" was filled with excellent information and
hands-on exercises for recording, tracking, and estimating tech pubs costs.

One of the topics Pat covered was the way in which you record your activity.
The term she used was WBS, standing for work breakdown system.  It's
typically an 8- to 10-character alphanumeric code that allows a department
to record precisely how you spend your time.  (Necessary if you want to get
a handle on "Real Costs.")

I'd very much like to find out what numbering system you might use to
record your time on various activities.  Your company may not call it WBS,
but your timecard (or activity report) codes will probably have a couple
digits for the project number, maybe a digit standing for a new document or
a revision, a digit or two signifying a client code, and a few digits for
the specific activity (research, meeting, write, illustrate, revise, plan,
format, production, report, etc.).

I'm trying to propose an improvement to my department's activity codes,
to make it more generic yet more detailed without becoming a horrendous
reporting nightmare for all who have to use it.  Please respond directly
to me unless you want to brag to everyone how great your system works.
Thanks in advance.

Carl Miller
ccm -at- cray -dot- com