What applications are being used

[cerebalbore]

Hi,

For my work, I've been asked to investigate creating an application that monitors what applications are 'active' on a PC for completing time sheets. So for example, from time hh:mm:ss until hh:mm:ss user was using SAP (application has focus), did nothing (PC was idle) for half an hour, then the user switched to Word at hh:mm:ss.

Using 'monitor', 'application', and 'active' in search terms gives me oodles of results, but nothing close to what I'm after.

I'm not new to .NET, but I'm no expert either, so would really appreciate some pointers.

Thanks,

Kat

I'm such a noob

 

[NESWalt]

Can you explain what the goal really is?

On the surface, this seems to be a very draconian and asinine idea to me. Sounds like a company trying to see you have to be active 100% of the time on a project but don't understand the concepts of meetings, paper and pencil time, etc... For example, if they are worried that someone is browsing the internet, there are better ways to track that for example.

Then you have also got to consider that your service to monitor this would also be using CPU cycles affecting the numbers. And I would think a Windows Service would be the best way to handle this... but you don't want the service to be running real time or that will affect the system a lot...

Walt
Ciber/NES

http://nespower.com

 

[cerebalbore]

OK.

We build bespoke aerospace components (equipment that is bolted on to the payload of a satellite). Each one is bid for using data not generated from anyone even close to manufacturing, so we usually overspend, and are asked to justify it. This is getting worse because we are also trying to compete in the commercial market now.

Meetings etc. - oh yeah, we all know about them and there's even work packages to cover them, but it doesn't apply in this case. The staff in question do not attend meetings (lucky!).

We have internet usage monitoring in place - that's all handled by corporate IM dept, and is a Human Remains function, I suppose we could use this to flag a lot of time on the internet, but not necessarily what's being looked at.

It's not that we want to make sure manufacturing staff are working 100% of the time, but when they are working outside of SAP we don't know what project they are working on (or even that they are working on the project they started).

I'm such a noob

 

[DarkConsultant]

Hi cerebalbore,

I built a system like this a few years ago so here is my haporth, please bear in mind things may have changed or I may have made a bad job of it ...

Monitoring which applications are open, opened, closed etc is easy and you can produce good reports about this but the problem seems to be that the apps were opened and closed but it was very difficult to monitor what the user actually did with the apps. There is a (popular??) app around that simulates a pc working, opens apps, close them, goes on the internet etc and this produced better reports than a person working. The company I wrote it for were happy in the end but I know they wanted something that could count the time spent on projects. For example, User A opened a particular document which was part of Project Z so the time the particular doc was open could be charged to the project. This did not happen as humans dont work that logically ....

Hope this help but I suspect not.

Good luck ...

David

DarkConsultant

http://www.contactconsultants.co.uk

Live long and prosper \\//

 

[NESWalt]

I agree with David.

While you can easily tell which apps were open, you really can't tell what they did... and an example of an issue with it... say I a word Document for Project Omega, I look at it for 30 seconds, then go to lunch for an hour, when I get back, I close it. It shows 1hr and 30seconds working on it, but it was really only 30seconds...

I know this may not help, but the people estimating the project probably should learn how to estimate projects based on actual real world experience/data. Easier said than done, but if they would involve the right personnel, it can be a lot closer.

I feel for you and wish I could help.

Walt
Ciber/NES

http://nespower.com

 

[cerebalbore]

OK, I've been on holiday for a few weeks, and haven't had a great deal of time to get back to this. I appreciate all your inputs, and points of view.

After further discussions with the customers, they need to know what document/spreadsheet etc was opened and when, and if the PC was idle (i.e. no mouse or keyboard input) for more than a certain amount of time flag it to the user to select an active project (yeah, I guess that is open to misuse).

I still haven't managed to find much on the internet about how to begin this type of application - as a starting point I can't even find out how to detect an application/document becoming 'active', so maybe I'm not searching with the correct terminology?

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!!

Kat

I'm such a noob

 

[NESWalt]

I hope you find something that will do what you are looking for. From my experience nothing like this either exists or is very hard to implement. The other question is, if you did find a package that does it, would it be money better spent purchasing it?

To me, this reeks of an estimation problem... that is, the people giving quotes don't know how to estimate... Not that you can do anything about that though.

Again, I wish you the best of luck in your search. Unfortunately, sometimes the answer is "no, I can't do that or don't know how to do that" or "no, I don't have the skill-set to approach that".

Walt
Ciber/NES

http://nespower.com

 

[DarkConsultant]

Sorry but I have to agree with NESWalt on this ...

Good luck with the search, though I suspect it will be fruitless.

Just to recap, it is fairly easy to detect which apps are open or running but almost impossible (readers please do NOT see this statement as a challenge) to tell which doc or file is open. As for mouse or keyboard movement, this too is easy but can never be accurate as it is unbelievably easy to simulate.

You are (in my most humble opinion) flagelating a deceased equus.
(Latin at 9:19 am I must be turning into Stephen Fry!)

Regards

DarkConsultant

http://www.contactconsultants.co.uk

Live long and prosper \\//

 

[cerebalbore]

Well, thanks all for your inputs guys.

I've been Googling since I last posted to find the answer and you were right. I haven't found the answer.

I know it's got to be possible, because it's just software (ones and noughts and all that), but I have exhausted all avenues now.

Thanks again.

Now I'm onto another problem - the fun never ends!

I'm such a noob