In our project called StudyPalz, Each member had their own way of tracking the amount of time it takes to finish a task. M3 was a bit different since the functionality of the project became more complex as each member began to add more layers to application. Some of the work from M2(Milestone 2) was discarded creating extra estimation and extra details that may have not been intended when we first laid out the foundations for the project. Each member timed how much it took to finish a certain part of the application. Although, there were some part of the program, an example, "Sessions" which took way more time to actually finish, which possibly would skew the actual amount of time that it took to finish. While something smaller like "fixing a footer" would only take minutes. The more complex the problem, the less accurate the estimation. if the problem is simple the time would be much more accurate.
In my personal opinion, there wasn't any benefit to actually tracking the amount of time a task took. Possibly timing on a general scale but the main idea was to finish the project before the due date. Tracking every single nuance seems a bit overboard, and to track time if a certain task takes longer than expected, doesn't change as long as the issue of the project being completed, but determining that if the issue is much more complex than it was intended would cause tracking to be on the back burner only for the application to be done when it's expected.
There could be some benefits to tracking, and estimating per task. For example, if there is a deadline, and The company need something to be fixed ASAP. It was important for the Software Developer to communicate of the expected outcome. On a personal not, in terms for this project. there wasn't really a benefit in time estimation due to the fact. Some of the work, not accurate due to some assigments had to be rolled over into the next day. or if part of the project was previously completed had bugs, The estimation would be skewed And the developer would have to retrack the amount of time that it would take to fix the bug. But admittendly, Some Team member put in much more work in comparison to others. I can honestly state, that the amount of effort I put in was less in comparison to my teammates, due to the fact there was a lot of complex layers that was developed after M2. Which limited the amount of help I could provide. While the estimation for my teammates are much higher. They deserve most of the credit due to effort and time put into the project, While I could only help on small nuances and testing.
I was able to track my effort through using a stop watch on my phone, While my teammates used there laptock to check for time, and discord presence some where estimated(the complex problems like Sessions). In terms of Accuracy, I believe the smaller issues where easily trackable with minimum error while the larger problems which took a couple days to finish is estimated, and not exact.