[PLUG] Bug-tracking software.

[Ronald Chmara]

On May 14, 2007, at 10:17 AM, Rogan Creswick wrote:

> Does anyone have recommendations for a web-based bug tracking system?

Well, a requirements phase might help you winnow down your needs... :)

> Additionally, only
> about half the devs have been using it, so I'd like to consider
> something else for a new project that we're starting on.

Something I've found helpful is to not introduce new *software* to a  
team, but instead introduce new *process*. If your devs are ignoring  
duties in tracking/documenting their work, and you introduce a new  
system that "will be used for generating metrics used in performance  
reviews", that is suddenly a totally different beast than "hey, look,  
yet another system to track our outstanding bugs", of which coders  
have seen, oh, more than a few. :)

> I have bad memories of
> Mantis and Bugzilla,

I love mantis, but hate bugzilla. It's a balance of granularity, ease  
of use, and purpose. Mantis isn't suited for maintaining 17  
concurrent releases of software versions, and bugzilla excels in this  
field, but fails to be a "20 second tool" for quickly entering and  
disposing of issues.

> In the
> past though, I have found it extremely difficult to search the bug
> databases for projects that use either tool.

Could you be more specific? I find myself often using the "related  
to" mantis feature to do things like XREF cache bugs, 304 bugs, and  
Expiry bugs.

The biggest *process* problem I run into is when the CXO can enter  
bugs like "website broken" or "something isn't working right", but  
that's more of a process issue. In such an environment, an  
entomologist is needed, a dedicated bug hunter, tracker, and  
classifier, in order to hand out (and annotate, verify, and clarify)  
bugs to those who can fix issues. Or alternately, only allow the  
folks who program to fill out the online bug system, but allow others  
to 'submit bugs' to the entomologist.

-Bop