Work logs

Since we use Jira to track nearly everything, including invoiceable work, we must apply a few best practices to write work logs so that we can properly invoice them to our customers whenever required.

Rules

Please follow these rules when tracking your time in Jira tasks:

  • Work logs are only allowed on Tasks and Chore issue types.

  • As we bill in slots 15 minutes long, the "Time Spent" must be filled in 15 minute steps (that means, not lower than 15 minutes for tasks)

  • A "Work Description" must always be entered. It should be as short and descriptive as possible.

The Work Description appears on the customers invoice (even if non-billable)!

Work Description

As the work description ends on the customer invoice, it needs to be carefully crafted. Think of the following sentence and finish it:

With this worklog I have …​

Good Examples

These are fictional!

  • "Upgraded JIRA to version 7.8.0"

  • "Configured Apache to support .htaccess"

  • "Added a new OpenShift Node node25"

  • "Decommissioned VM"

Bad Examples

These are fictional!

  • "Helped Peter Muster to solve the issue and talked a bit about it"

  • "Discuss"

  • (empty work description)

  • Really long sentence, like "Nostrud reprehenderit anim amet proident dolor pariatur adipisicing adipisicing deserunt officia elit duis Lorem. Deserunt excepteur anim aliquip et. Et dolor officia esse deserunt incididunt exercitation consectetur velit reprehenderit ullamco velit id mollit incididunt. Mollit occaecat sunt sunt ullamco minim sunt. Velit cillum duis occaecat laboris cupidatat dolore non culpa nostrud. Reprehenderit sint sit do tempor sint. Und so weiter."

  • Explicitly mentioning users.

Keywords

We use several keywords in front of a Work Description which is used by JOSY to treat work logs differently. Just put the keyword in capital letters in front of the worklog with a blank between.

Example
B247 Rolled out the new version 12.42 of GitLab in maintenance window

These are the keywords currently in use:

Keyword Use

B

Sets the field "Invoiceable" in Odoo to "Yes (0918)"

NB

Sets the field "Invoiceable" in Odoo to "No"

B247

Sets the field "Invoiceable" in Odoo to "Yes (24x7)"

Pay attention to the following tips:

  • If no keyword is given, JOSY doesn’t do anything in Odoo and Odoo uses the default value for the contract. So normally no keyword needs to be given.

  • The keyword gets stripped away from the Work Description.

  • B247 must be set if you have to work outside office-hours for a customer according to our support availability