Regarding Task Effort - Planning (before development)

[Sangeetha6]

Dear Team,

I have a query where there is a need to plan the effort for the upcoming months in one or two months prior of development in Task Table (Example: Enhancement or Demand).

I tried exploring all the options, I would like to know if there is any option available in the OOB where user can fill the effort against the Task prior of start of work. Tracking should be in month- wise (Refer to the attached).

I checked different options such as,

1. Performance Analytics - Score sheet but using this we can not create report with reference to Task and there are challenges with the scoresheet 

2. Time Cards - this is created at the end of development but we to plan the effort before development activity

3. Time worked field - this is a field, whereas multiple fields are needed to track month wise effort for better visibility

4. This requirement can be achieved using - Custom Table 

But I would like to check with you have any idea, if this can be achieved without custom table.

Regards,

Sangeetha

@Chuck Tomasi need your suggestions.

[Mark Manders]

How are you thinking of doing this, process wise? Add expected effort, months prior to doing it? I see a lot of issues with the requirement, but technically, why not create a custom field (not a table) an the task table, called 'expected effort', so you can put the effort in on task level and then just report on it. 

[Sangeetha6]

I am checking if there is any other option, without creating custom table nor custom field in OOB table.

[Mark Manders]

OOB fields are all for effort on the tasks themselves. You don't want to use those, because if they are already filled, they will not be used when the tasks are done. Why not create a custom field if the requirement is to do this? It's just one field. You want to do something that isn't there, OOB and don't want to create anything that isn't OOB? That won't work. 
If you want to see the estimated effort months ahead, you will have to record that data somewhere, so you can report on it.