Problem overview
In general, I’m writing to ask you for help in creating charts with “actual time”, as it seems it’s not always available option (while “estimated time is”), especially in more complex charts.
**Description of problem
chart where actual time doesn’t work:**
I created portfolio full of projects. Each project has visible columns where, among others, there are estimated time and actual time. Each project has at least 1 entry in actual and estimated time.
I tried to create a chart in portfolio:
- report on tasks;
- grouped bar;
CHART DATA
x-axis:
- Due date week;
- grouped by “type of task” (custom 1 choice field like “priority” This field is in all projects and is added to global library);
Y -axis:
- estimated time;
- unit of time: hours
And there is absolutely no option to choose “actual time” instead of “estimated time” in y-axis. Why?
chart where actual time works:
However, I can create a chart in the same portfolio, where I have:
- report on tasks;
- chart style bar;
CHART DATA
x-axis
- project
y-axis
- actual time, sum,
Unit of time:hours
What I tried
- creating different charts (as mentioned above and others);
- adding at least 1 time entry to each column;
- chatting with Asana AI support - no help whatsoever. Pointing me to do stuff I’ve already done;
Hi @Piotr_Burzynski. I played around with the charts and was also unable to get your desired output. In fact, it looks like “actual time” is only offered for the following charts: bar, line, donut, number, and lollipop. I’d recommend submitting a product idea here: Product Feedback - Asana Forum
Lastly, what is your end goal? I’m curious to know how you were hoping to use this data.
I’m a fan of data-driven operations and encourage people to use Asana reporting.
1 Like
Howdy,
thank you for an attempt to help. Looks like it’s just Asana’s limitation then which is I don’t understand. I’m explaining below why I need it.
classification
My team creates schedules for a week-two week time with “estimated time”. We classify tasks in office basing on 4 factors: Architecture / PZT (plot plan) / Formal (documents) / Organizationl - related jobs. Non-classified tasks are holidays.
point of classification
Classification is for better understanding what eats up most of the time to better estimate those fields in future - so it’s invaulable in terms of estimating costs and presenting an offer which is less of a guess-work.
Due to highly unpredictable nature of architectural projects quite often estimated time is not what actual time is. One could argue that I can create (and I did) am “actual time” filter in Workload tab but while it’s readable for estimated time, I find it of less use in actual time. Why? Here is a sample picture of my tasks in estimated time:
While it’s showing quite well if I’m overloaded or not on certain days, it’s not great UI for quickly grasping what projects (and types of task in those project) I spent most time on in the week. One task can last 1 week and be scheduled for 4 hours and one for 1 day and scheduled for 10. Large bars are misleading and you need to read into it to see how many hours was spent and then sum it up by yourself. Tidious.
Stacked bars chart where X axis shows projects and on Y axis you have hours with tasks presented as stacked bar (with e.g. time flow showing last week) would make it waaaay easier to look at.
Not mentioning that it would be very useful to have two identical charts one next to other (estimated vs actual) to give some intel to those planning if they are estimating time correctly.
solution?
What I did now was I added one more custom colmns with formulat that just multiplies “actual time” by 1 and chart allows me to add this formula. But why on earth would I need to do such a walkaround when all I need is only to pick an actual time instead of estimated time??
@Piotr_Burzynski I see what you’re trying to do and clearly see the value of using a stacked bar chart to see this data, and not having to create more custom fields. Glad the workaround fulfills the need. I’d still recommend filing that feature request to the Product team. Cheers!
My advice will be to submit your idea here - Product Feedback - Asana Forum
