About a month ago, we added sub tasks functionality to the task management module to help teams better manage and complete their work much faster.
Fast forward to now, and we’re pretty excited with the uptake it has got among our customers. Along the same lines, we were bombarded with requests to have duration in hours for tasks / sub tasks. Hence we were forced to break ground on this due to the sheer volume of requests flooding our customer forums and tech support.
So we took these requests to heart and today we’re glad to launch THE much awaited duration in hours for tasks.
Just, go to Edit Profile under Portal Settings and select hours instead of days, save it and you’re done. Task duration in hours gets enabled for your project portal. It’s simple isn’t it?
Note: You must be the portal owner to enable this option for your. portal. And this feature is available only for Premium and Enterprise paid customers of Zoho Projects.
Let’s explore about task duration in hours in Zoho Projects
Starting today, duration in hours is available for all tasks, sub tasks and dependency view of a project. With this, work is broken down, tasks are identified, and estimates are specified for each task in hours which helps in calculating the exact time spent to accomplish your work each day.
Furthermore, we do support the various format for time entry i,e you can enter hours as 2:30 or 2.5 which gets automatically interpreted has 2 hours and 30 minutes.
Task duration is now included in resource utilization as well as gantt charts. Typically, durations can depend on the experience of the person who performs the task. For example, In a team, a highly skilled and experienced person can complete certain tasks much more quickly than a less experienced person. The ability to deploy employees effectively against projects enables project managers to better utilize and maximize employee productivity.
In addition, task duration in hours comes with a hidden benefit i,e when you allocate a task for certain hours, how much time it actually took to complete? what challenges did you encounter? how would you do itdifferently if you had to do it all over again the next time but complete it in much faster pace.
But that’s not all. With this latest update, we’ve enhanced the recurrence interval to accommodate additional time span like fortnightly, quarterly, half-yearly and yearly for recurring tasks.
The following user guide summarizes the steps to follow. For more details, please refer Task duration in hours.
We’re busy working on Projects 4.0 in providing the next generation user experience for you. You can get a sneak peek of this at https://forums.zoho.com/topic/what-s-keeping-us-busy-in-zoho-projects
Well, It’s up to you, give it a try and let us know how useful is duration in hours as comments here. We’re all ears… 🙂
Where is Task Duration in hours? I just can't find it.
I have a premium account and cannot see anywhere to allow duration to be in hours. I have looked under Edit Profile under Portal Settings - and there is no option to change to hours. I am the portal admin.
We had upgraded our zoho to premium as we thought that the issues with TASK DURATION and TASK DEADLINE/END DATE were solved, but doesn't seem to be. When this issue of having task duration direct related to the task deadline/enddate will be solved? Everyone who has posted to this forum has the same understanding that tasks duration are not the same as task deadline/enddate.Thanks
Hi,We'll implement this along with our Projects 4.0 release. Please bear with us.
It is more than 2 months and we have not heard back on this. Are you guys planning to work on this?
Hi Fouad,This feature is available only for Enterprise and Premium customers of Zoho Projects.
Please send us your plan and portal details to support@zohoprojects.comRegards,
Celina
we can't find the Hours button unde rthe profile? how cna we resolve this ?
Please, tell these guys at Zoho Corp that TASK DURATION and TASK DEADLINE/END DATE are NOT THE SAME THING. I might want someone to accomplish a task by March 8th, but I only want him to spend 1 hour to do it, not 134.
And don't forget to tell them also that people here don't work 24/7. So if I set a task at 6PM with a 6 hour duration, people are normally NOT working until midnight to accomplish it. Which brings us back to the same problem before.
It makes it impossible to define the performance metric, or even tell anything about resource allocation!Please fix it ASAP so we can continue bearing with you guys.Many thanks,
Calebe
Hi Anukool,Thank you for showcasing a sample use case. We'll try to provide a best possible solution for duration calculation based on feasibility in one of our future updates.With Regards,
Celina
Good that this feature is implemented, however as Stephanie told, this is a half solution which is pretty much not usable. This is what I tried and found it too annoying.With most (I guess all of them) of the companies, 1 day = 8 hours. If I put in a start date as 22 feb 2012 9:00 AM and say the duration is 11 hours, it shows the end date as 22 feb 2012 8:00 AM. On the other hand if I put in a start date as 22 feb 2012 10:00 AM and end date as 23 feb 2012 01:00 PM , then the duration is calculated as 27 hours. There is something seriously wrong in the duration calculation system that is built and it makes the system even more difficult to use.
Hi Celina,I am also very interested in the feature. Do you already have an idea of the publication date for the version 4 ?Thanks and regardsSebastien
@Frank Thanks and excited to know you are managing 35 projects in Zoho Projects and this update is proving useful.@Fabio
Thanks a ton for your kind words... :). Keep using Zoho Projects and send your feedback anytime to support@zohoprojects.com
@Christophe, Thank you for elaborating with an example. We'll provide this missing functionality based on feasibility as part of Projects 4.0.If you wish, we can enable a 15 days free trial of either Enterprise or Premium plan.
Please send us your portal details to support@zohoprojects.com
Hi Stephanie,Thanks for pointing this out. We've made a note of your request and will provide support for this missing functionality based on feasibility in Projects 4.0.With Regards,
Celina
Hello,I agree with Stéphanie. Start and end dates for a task must be different from duration.
For example, you have a release calendar with common dates to different projects to enter SIT, UAT and then going into production. You would set an end date to be ready on time. However, as a project manager, you estimate a duration that you will monitor with the timing sheet.Why are you also considering only Premium and Entreprise customers for your latest features? How do you want to attract prospects?Thanks for your attention!Best regards,Christophe
Really? Can I hear from someone that has actually tried this? I am baffled that you spent time developing this odd half-solution. Please, have pity on your project manager:DURATION is completely different and separate from start and end CALENDAR DATES. I need two distinct fields for this! If I have to choose between one or the other, then not only am I lacking one critical metric, but it renders the other half as useful. What good is it to know that a task is due in two weeks if can't show that it should take 2 hours or 12? What good is it to say that I have a 2 hour task if I can't set a due date? This is a sad gap for a tool designed specifically for project management.
Fantástico, era o que estava faltando para eu poder ter uma ideia da alocação de recursos já que uma pessoa pode executar várias tarefas num dia.
Gooooooood!!!! Thank you guys. This is very useful. Can't wait to start with it and already know that I'll never miss this function. We have 35 projects online and time allocation will be much much easier.