How We Take On Time Tracking Challenges On GitHub For Enterprises

This post is part of a series where we document our journey of building a new product, 7pace For GitHub in real-time. We share our experiences and what we have learned along the way. Here’s how it all started.

GitHub is loved by developers worldwide. So why aren’t more enterprises using this platform?

The time-tracking gap in GitHub makes it challenging for enterprise teams to transition to the system and utilize the platform effectively.

So we’re creating 7pace for GitHub to help enterprise teams transition from other tools (e.g., Azure DevOps) to GitHub more seamlessly and efficiently.

The Challenges Faced by Enterprise Development Teams When Transitioning to GitHub

Getting development teams to adopt a new platform can be challenging. Not only do they have to manage yet another tool, but such a transition is rarely a clean break.

You often need to use both systems at the same time for a while. Yet, switching between platforms is tedious and cumbersome. It adds an extra layer of challenge in terms of workflow and coordination.

Transitioning from one system to another is a lengthy process. During this time, it’s much harder to get a clear picture of what’s going on in all the ongoing projects.

Invoicing can also be tricky because you have to combine data from multiple sources to calculate how much time is spent on each task.

On top of all these hurdles, GitHub lacks some essential time-tracking and resource planning functionalities for managing multiple developers, teams, and projects.

Many enterprise teams can’t get the high-quality and granular data they need for planning and decision-making. They find themselves flying blind when scoping new projects.

Project managers only know that time is spent somewhere, but they don’t have the data to see where the time-sinks are. Many teams get caught in the same time-sucking traps repeatedly because they can’t put their fingers on the issues.

There aren’t many tools that allow you to trace time spent back to work items. Managers often have trouble pinpointing where time is lost. This is particularly challenging if you have to refer to older data.

Meanwhile, the lack of visibility makes transitioning from other tools (e.g., Azure DevOps) to GitHub more complicated. Not to mention, there’s often not enough data to help teams understand the downtime required for the migration.

All these challenges add to the costs of a GitHub migration. Teams not only need to set up the new system. They have to spend even more time orchestrating the transition because of the guesswork involved.

7pace For GitHub: Filling the Time Tracking Gap for Better Insights and Planning

While we don’t have the magic wand to help you solve all your system migration woes, 7pace for GitHub can give you the data and visibility you need to make better decisions.

7pace for GitHub enables developers to track their time where they work, even if they use multiple platforms.

For example, if you’re migrating from Azure DevOps to GitHub, you can track time on each platform. You can see the time spent on any specific task all in one place without exporting and combining data from multiple sources.

Since developers can work on both systems concurrently and manage time tracking all in one place, you can reduce the downtime associated with system transition.

You also get all the information you need to support accurate decision-making in one report, instead of having to hunt and peck from different locations.

With the granular data, you’ll know exactly which issues and work items the team has spent time on and what is delivered — even if an item is moved to the backlog and not completed.

You can investigate specific issues and gather information to help you avoid the same situation in the future or put things back on track. The level of granularity also helps you identify and preempt bottlenecks.

You can compare previous estimates to the actual time spent on the task. You’ll know what was underestimated or overestimated. You can also see what you might have forgotten in your plan and which tasks often turn out to be more complex than anticipated.

Better data means better project management. By understanding where they spend their time, developers can get better at estimating. This, in turn, leads to more accurate planning and decision-making.

Plus, the more regularly you collect and analyze information, the more accurate your planning and estimations will become.

There’s less stress and frustration, and the accurate estimation pays off for developers and management alike.

Making Time Tracking and Enterprise Life Better on GitHub

7pace for GitHub offers the time tracking features you need to make migrating to and working on GitHub more efficient.

In fact, we have already used an internal version to transition from Azure DevOps to GitHub while we build 7pace for GitHub. Here is how we created accurate estimates for this entirely new project by tapping into the granular data we collect.

What to find out how it all goes down as we take this project across the finish line?

We’ll be sharing new posts and teardowns of our product development process. We’ll post insights and lessons along the way—join us to see what happens.