Time zone support for project management

Target groups

Solution administrators

Context

If a distributed team works on a project, time zones help you to plan dates and times accordingly. censhare automatically calculates durations and dead lines taking into account the time shift.

Prerequisites

A list of time zones is configured in the censhare Admin Client. A default time zone can be set in the System asset. They can be selected in the "Project" assets and subtypes.

Introduction

censhare project management supports time zones for projects and tasks. This is relevant when distributed teams work together in a project. Team members work in different time zones, each one with their availability calendar and working times. For project managers, this is a challenge as the different times have to be taken into account for the planning. Dependencies and deadlines have to be met, especially in time sensitive projects. For example, if you have booked a print job, a publication must be delivered in time in order to avoid extra costs.

censhare stores the project time zone in the project asset. User time zones are taken from the location of the logged-in user. Time zones are shown in the Project editor and in the Properties widgets of the respective projects and tasks.

Define the project time zone

This is only required if you want to use a different project time zone than the one defined in your system. Otherwise leave this field empty. censhare then applies the system time zone to the project and all calculations. In case there is no time zone available from the System asset, censhare uses the server time zone instead.

As a user, you can set the timezone of a project when creating it and change it at any time. The drop-down list shows continents and major cities. You can search for both. Once you have defined a project time zone, all dates and times in the timeline refer to this time zone. Changing the time zone may therefore affect these parameters.

To select or change the time zone of a project, edit the "Properties" widget of the project asset and open the drop-down "Project time zone".

User time zone

When you open a task, censhare displays the time zone you are currently working in as "User time zone". The user time zone cannot be selected in the Properties widget of a task, it is set automatically. censhare uses the time zone defined in the operating system of the computer. Usually, this is taken from the current location. If necessary, you can set the time zone manually in the system preferences of your computer.

censhare stores any date and time in the task asset in Coordinated universal time (UTC). Therefore, when the project time zone changes or you travel to a different time zone, times are always displayed correctly.

To see the project and user time zone of a task, edit the "Properties" widget of the Task asset. In the section "Time zone" both value are displayed. You cannot change the time zones here. The "Project time zone" is inherited from the project the task is assigned to. The user time zone is automatically set. If a task is assigned to yourself and you want to change the user time zone, go to the system preferences of your operating system. There, select the desired time zone and restart your browser. However, we recommend to set time zone automatically using your location.

Calculating dates and durations in different time zones

Once you have entered start date, end date and/or duration of a task, assigned it to a user and placed it in the project editor, censhare calculates the duration in the project time zone. For example, you plan a project in your Kiev headquarter in Eastern European time (EET). A random task of this project is planned to start at 9 a.m. and take 7 hours to complete. The calculated end time is 4 p.m. Then you assign this task to a team member working in London. This user works in Greenwich mean time (GMT), which is 2 hours behind EET. As a result, the task will now span over two days in the timeline. Here is why:

First, we assume that team members working in London and Kiev use the default availability calendar and availability times. This means, their working day starts at 9 a.m. and ends at 5 p.m. (8 hours). Thus, when the team member in London finishes his or her task as planned at 4 p.m., it is 6 p.m. EET in "project time". Since the working day in the Kiev headquarter also ends at 5 p.m., the task is finished outside office hours and therefore ends only at the following working day. This might seem insignificant, but can be important - imagine that the Kiev headquarter has to approve the task the same day.

If you decide to assign the task to a team member of the Kiev headquarter, without changing planned start date and duration, it now fits within one day on the timeline in the project editor. Since there is no time shift (both, project time and user time are in the same time zone), the task will be finished at the same day - and with enough time left to be approved.

Result

You have planned a project, created tasks, milestones and dependencies.

Next steps

Track the progress of the tasks in a project and adjust the planned times and deadlines, if necessary.