MQE/Intro - Overview

In the early days of rationalization, Henry T. Ford called in the experience of Frederick Taylor, the creator of "scientific management," to carry out time and motion studies to determine the exact speed at which the work for a specific task should proceed and the exact motions workers should use to accomplish their tasks. Today, we still need to measure time for a given task so we can keep within budget, or bill a Client precisely for our services. In addition, having a detailed analysis of how time is spent and on what sub-task and using which software, will allow users of MetriQ to save time, improve efficiency and ultimately save money.

MetriQ, with its patent pending Timing Icon Technology, allows for the automated collection of time for practically any computer based task (currently only in the Microsoft Windows operating system), and also allows for the timing of non-computer based external events.

The MetriQ environment has a structured hierarchy of Folders and User Folders (see Folder Overview) which are populated with Timing Icon (see also Populating Folders). These timing icons act as centralized control units that start and stop software products on the host machine and time their usage.

From an analysis perspective, the Actual collected time can be used for billing a client, monitoring time usage and as a comparison against an Estimated effort entered as boundary conditions when a folder is first created (see also Folder Properties and Folder Profiles). This gives managers the ability to see in real time how a task is actually progressing, and compare this against the estimated resources assigned to it at the beginning of its life cycle.

MetriQ Timing: Ordinarily, to start a task, say writing a document, you open a word processor and begin typing. If you wanted to time how long it took to complete the task, you'd most probably keep a manual log with start time and end time entries, and perhaps a diary of the tasks at hand. Using this manual method you may encounter one or more of the following:

1	Forget to update your manual time entry. Relying on your memory to add the time spent on a task, perhaps at the end of the day, can lead to large and expected errors.
2	Get interrupted by a co-worker or your boss. Did you remember to update your time sheet?
3	What do you record - hours or minutes? Who does the final calculations of the time you spend adding these values to your journal, and works out the total time spent on each task?
4	Rounding errors.
5	Loose your hand written journal or the pieces of paper that you keep.
6	Change quickly from one task to another, then back again? Do you omit the minutes scanning the web for a telephone number, and just add this in to another task?
7	The time actually writing down the entry. You may be surprised that 10 minutes a day keeping a log can cost your organization many thousands of dollar in lost time during a year.

These then represent just a few of the problems you may encounter with manual time sheets. The objective of MetriQ is to do all of this timing for you - automatically, without the need for your intervention.

Time Accountancy - MetriQ does it for you!

When you open a task in MetriQ, you are presented with a User Folder Panel (the real estate on which all your timing icons sit) surrounded by the administration interface (buttons and tools used to setup and maintain the User Folder). Assume you have opened a task called "Documentation", already populated with a number of icons suitable for this task's completion.

When you double click any of these icons, and launch the associated software package, timing for that specific icon will begin and will be displayed underneath the icon (see Timing Icons and Timing Icons Overview). If you open all six icons at the same time, MetriQ will simply time the one you are working on, and stop timing on all the others.

Privacy: The designers of MetriQ were keen to ensure that your privacy is not compromised in any shape or form (see also FAQ's and MetriQ Privacy), and as such does not have a stealth mode. When you use MetriQ, what you see is what you get, no hidden surprises, no behind the scenes data logging.

MetriQ Overview with MetriQ Time Tracking Software