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I would use (and do use) a timeclock program. Having worked many years in an
environment where billing was to the tenth of an hour, precise allocation of
time to projects became second nature. There are many programs out there;
one I've used with satisfaction is traxtime: www.spudcity.com/traxtime
It's crucial to know how long each of your projects takes. Without this
knowledge, you can't reliably estimate future projects. With it, you can
estimate projects of thousands of person-hours accurately.
<commercial plug>
In my book, I devote quite a number of pages to a methodology of estimating
projects accurately. And the first step in the process, upon which all
others depend, is accurate tracking of past and current projects. There's
more to it than that - analyzing the variables in your different projects
that make some take longer and some not, and constantly refining this
analysis in the context of your organization. But the first step is to know
how long your projects have taken you in the past.
</commercial plug>
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