The "Kronos Guy" Blog

I recently had the opportunity to work with a client that implemented a new HRPR system. Along with infrastructure changes they also had an interesting structural change that restructured all positions in their existing Kronos system. Those changes needed to be reflected in Kronos Workforce Timekeeper and Scheduler. They needed to expand the existing organizational hierarchy to allow for an additional level at the top of the structure and expand existing levels to allow for more characters. Post the change, scheduling and labor accounting can now be done with the added level. In addition, since there are more digits for level entries, it reduced the amount of level entries to go through for a transfer or employee assignment.

A coworker and I decided to reward ourselves after a hard day’s work.  You know – look for an oasis away from work where you can forget about everything for at least a little while.
We were in a steak house looking over a really great menu when we came across the 72 oz Steak Challenge.   You have probably heard about these contests before, eat the whole thing and it's free.  This was one of the most well defined contests I have ever seen.  Seriously, just look at these rules:

We recently assisted a customer with a Workforce Central Timekeeper build for an additional server. After completion we wondered; was it really worth the effort? I would have to say a resounding yes. There could be several environments in addition to production. Several examples include training, development, or testing. Also, having a test system allows the entire organization to implement change on the fly while eliminating any risk to production.  Sometimes it is also referred to as a sandbox. As we enter autumn, I like to think of having at least one additional Kronos server akin to having the first tree from a certain species available for landscape design. Having seen customers with two or even three Kronos systems beyond production, I’d like to focus on how just having even a single “mirror of production” a.k.a. "test server" could be beneficial. 

We have two client projects underway at Improv now that have “Parallel Testing” on the project plan.    In my experience these appear to come pre-printed on Kronos HRIS/Payroll Project Plans from the factory like Christmas and Hanukah do on a Calendar. It’s there at the end even if you only celebrate Festivus. I recently read a blog on HRIS projects that went as far as this statement about parallel testing:

How many times have we heard the old cliché don’t reinvent the wheel? Under normal circumstances the phrase usually applies as a standard catchphrase for many things in life. Per Wikipedia's definition: "To reinvent the wheel is to duplicate a basic method that has already previously been created or optimized by others". As it is one of the key sayings that have been used lately and one that I have enjoyed over the years, I felt it worthwhile to write about the particular topic when it comes to your Kronos pay or work rule configuration. The catchphrase can also be applied to configuring other areas of Workforce Timekeeper (display profiles, accruals, or <your idea here!>).

One of the last vestiges…no, I’ll go so far as to say symbol of the good ol’ days of air travel is the 22” x 14” x 9” carry-on baggage allowance.  They even still have those measurement boxes at the ticket counters implying that if it fits in that space then it will fit in the overhead bin of your aircraft.  Not too likely if you are on a regional jet (or smaller).  Sure—you can act like you are going to carry it on.  Take it through security yourself, wait in the boarding area with it, even stroll past the gate agent towards the aircraft…your wheelie scooting along the tarmac like a Mercury astronaut’s oxygen tank .  Sometimes you even get it on the plane and start the stuffing process before the flight attendant informs you that you’ll need to ‘gate check’ your bag.  Want to get an angry look from a flight attendant? Try this. “But the ticket agent said it fit into your measuring box!”  I love that look. 

A customer of ours has engaged us to help them re-engineer their Kronos timekeeping and scheduling environment.  We recently suggested to them that upgrading to the latest version of Kronos from their slightly earlier version might be desirable as part of the project already underway.  Although some leeway was granted to do a test upgrade and assess the pros and cons, the idea was nixed before a formal review was completed.

‘When all bets are off’ --  an expression meaning a situation in which one factor alone can change or cancel out everything. *      

We've had an interesting discussion about this internally and with some friends, and have gotten a couple of good responses on the best way to handle this. Now I'm looking for your input. How do you do this? Here is the original question.

“Most people don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan”. This quote is attributed to John L Beckly who also founded the Economics Press, the purveyors of “Bits and Pieces”. You know, those little motivational booklets that have inspiring quotes and stories from all sorts of famous people. One of the famously quoted famous people was Werner Von Braun who said “One test is worth one thousand expert opinions”.  Yet unpublished, until now, is my engineer-father’s line “If I thought it would actually work I wouldn’t need to test it”. (He used this often when his customers grimaced about the cost of testing something he was building for them… it generally didn’t make them feel better but his stuff always worked the first time in the field.)