Ninjato Data Driven Time Tracking System

What is Jira for project management? The Jira project management software is an advanced solution for evaluating your development progress from A to Z. It provides a lot of great features like issue tracking, Agile boards, backlog management, etc. Nonetheless, its basic functionality may not be enough for effective client expectation control. To address this challenge, Jira’s developer Atlassian provides additional plugins and add-ons.

Since Coreteka is engaged in software development for our clients, we also faced some challenges with Jira’s basic functionality. In our opinion, they are:

• Task complexion uncertainties. Jira’s project management boards provide a way to track task progress, but the system’s calculations lack precision. The deduction of developer time from initial estimates often proves inaccurate due to the dynamic nature of the development process. This imprecision has led to project delays, leaving clients confused.
• Difficulties in accessing work quality. One good way to evaluate software development teamwork is by counting bugs per engineer. Of course, errors are essential for each project, but they should be at optimal levels. Jira’s basic interface doesn’t offer a straightforward tally of a developer’s bugs on a specific project, making performance assessment challenging.
• Lack of bug analysis by hours/quantity. Clients pay for bug fixes, and excessive errors may lead to budget overruns. Jira’s limitations in tracking bugs by hours or quantity make it challenging to effectively manage client expectations in this regard.
• Uncertainty in meeting estimated hours. While Jira tracks time spent on tasks, the calculations are unpredictable, and there’s no provision for developers to adjust for unforeseen circumstances. This uncertainty poses challenges in meeting estimated hours or anticipating the need for extra time accurately.
• Financial management issues. Jira’s report exports focus solely on time spent on tasks, lacking information about costs. While account managers can manually add details to reports, this process is time-consuming. Additionally, Jira’s standard functionality falls short in evaluating the cost of individual tasks and the overall project budget.
• Risk of developer fraud. Jira’s vulnerability lies in allowing retroactive time logging. This becomes critical when reports are submitted to clients, and development hours have already been paid for. Retroactive time logging, especially after the sprint is closed, places the burden on the software development company to cover both the hours and associated costs.

To overcome all the challenges mentioned above, we developed our unique Jira project management plugin—Ninjato. It significantly expands the basic functionality of Atlassian’s software, simplifying project management and providing software development companies like ours with solutions to enhance clients’ expectations.

You can implement specific reporting practices and time-logging policies for your developers. However, this is not very effective if you don’t have a working tool that consolidates all the information and helps track vulnerabilities. Therefore, the best solution for all Jira issues is to install additional plugins. They can be roughly divided into several types:

• Agile and Scrum tools.
• Test management.
• Reporting.
• Additional dashboards.
• Time tracking and productivity.
• Scripting.
• Improved collaboration between teams.
• Configuration management.
• Security and compliance.
• Interface customization.

For each additional plugin, you will have to pay. Moreover, their cost is usually calculated based on the number of people in the team.

The Ninjato time-tracking system is a Jira project management tool that combines the functionality of several types of plugins. For example, it helps create detailed reports, allows for the implementation of additional dashboards, forecasts all stages of development, and efficiently manages the development team. This Jira project management solution can be useful for software development companies that strive to improve their performance and meet client expectations.

In addition to the Ninjato time-tracking system, there are many other good solutions to enhance the basic functionality of Atlassian’s Jira project management software. Some of them are listed below:

1. BigPicture. This plugin is designed specifically to improve IT project management. It enables efficient planning of development teamwork and provides advanced tracking capabilities through Gantt charts and roadmaps.
2. Timesheets by Tempo. As one of the good Jira project management tools, the solution enhances time tracking and reporting. It allows project and account managers to log work, track time, and generate detailed reports.
3. EazyBI Reports and Charts. This add-on allows project managers to access business intelligence tools within the Jira interface. It enables the creation of custom reports, charts, and dashboards, providing advanced analytics and visualization features.
4. Structure by Tempo. This tool is useful for designing a hierarchical organizational structure through roadmaps and Agile Jira project management boards. It offers a more visual and structured view of the software development process.
5. Zephyr Squad. This add-on is handy for improving quality assurance processes. It assists teams in managing test cycles, creating test cases, and tracking test execution within the Jira environment.

Coreteka has been providing software development services for over 7+ years. During this time, we have developed our unique Jira project management best practices and encountered several challenges. One critical issue for us was retrospective time logging.

Furthermore, managing client expectations during project development has been a complex task. This requires precise estimations and discussions on numerous details. As a result, we developed the Ninjato time tracking system, which addressed all critical issues for our team.  You can read more about this solution on our blog. Ninjato also enables us to generate detailed reports for our clients.

If your software development team is facing similar challenges, you can book a demo to learn how Ninjato can help in your specific case.

The Ninjato time tracking system significantly expands the basic functionality of Jira. In some cases, this solution can address several tasks for your company. For example, project/account management, HR, and financial aspects. The main Ninjato features are:

• Comprehensive progress tracking. Ninjato can provide detailed information about the project release date, epics, sprints, the team involved, and duration. Moreover, it can make predictions based on data delivered by software engineers who are involved in your project.

• Bugs tracking. Ninjato enhances the way you can track bugs on a specific project. It monitors errors by numbers and percentages. Moreover, the solution allows you to identify what engineer encounters the most bugs.

• Plan new. This feature is handy if your client frequently changes their software development plans. After all, this can influence the financial side of your project. If a misunderstanding appears, you can show all changes to your stakeholders.

• Task dashboard. This module offers in-depth analytics for each task, presenting insights into both estimated and actual time spent. It allows easy data filtering based on the project, release, employee, and more.

• Time to complete. This dashboard automatically calculates the time remaining for a specific task or project completion. It visualizes progress through clear and intuitive charts.

• Project timesheet. Delve into detailed analytics on how employees log time for specific tasks or projects, breaking it down by individual team members or by day.

• Reports for clients. Generate detailed reports for client submissions, breaking down information by releases, sprints, or months. This module also enables report export to Google Sheets or PDF files, providing well-organized reports including developer counts and time spent.
• Company timesheet. This module allows you to assess the overall workload of your company’s employees, displaying the number of hours worked by specific individuals and highlighting developers currently on the bench.

Thanks to Coreteka’s expertise and experience, you can avoid many issues that arise during software development and client communication. To achieve this, you can integrate the Ninjato time-tracking system into your workflow.

To get a more detailed understanding of the functionality and learn how to effectively utilize this solution for your purposes, book a demo and engage with our specialists.