Bug Tracking Software

Software to help you gather, assign, prioritize, track, ... bugs (bug TrackingTools).

--- As of 05-2007 it contains a Wiki and issues have Wiki tags, which means you can upload photos of bugs. Nice!

Other ideas:

The problem of using StarUnit: just CaptureBugsWithTests

  1. You need to separate your backlog from your regression tests. It is very simple to convert one in the other when using StarUnit, but OTOH it is very hard to discern one from the other.
  2. Architectural and Macro Tasks (like UserStories) are not handled well with StarUnit.
  3. Priorities are not handled well with StarUnit: Which must be fixed first?
  4. Releases are not handled well with StarUnit: Which must be fixed in this release and which must be postponed?
  5. Dependencies are not handled well with StarUnit: Which depends on which?
  6. Estimates are not handled well with StarUnit: How long will it take?
  7. Risks are not handled well with StarUnit.
  8. Subtasks are not handled well with StarUnit: How do you divide tests?
  9. Planning is not handled well with StarUnit. If a tool is good for estimation, dependencies, assigning priorities, assigning scope and release, subdividing tasks, etc. then it is good for planning.

Should we consider having so few bugs that we don't need this kind of software? Naaah ...

If you are able to do that, I envy you. Maybe you are KentTheBeck (are you?), or maybe you are in a different situation. But I'm currently working on legacy code that was initially uncommented, undocumented, without tests and not well factored, and frankly, at least I can't get there from here quickly. In the meanwhile, Mantis is helping me a lot. -- FalkBruegmann

To parallel some brutal sarcasm, maybe you are good enough to do that, but I'm not...

I know it's not ideal, but I didn't exactly have a choice. The business situation is such that we needed to keep adding features right after taking over the code base. So we PayForMeatWithCandy, and refactor/add tests/comment/debug as we go along. As the system is neither very big/complex nor very buggy, this seems to work so far. -- fb

Sorry, the attempt was to say that if you can build a system of any size with so few bugs they don't need to be tracked, you are better (at it) than I am. I don't see how it can be done.

Tip: If you are using such a system, consider tracking project risks and/or feature requests with it, depending on the situation.

If you start mixing non-defect data into a defect tracking system, take great care to provide a way of reporting on (or at least counting) just the defects. Otherwise, you leave the system open to misinterpretation. Consider the "Microsoft NT ships with 64,000 bugs!" headline. Few external people will dig deep enough to discover that N entries in the tracking system doesn't mean N bugs. -- DaveSmith

I guess the question is; what is a bug? Defects, misunderstanding, failures, etc. You need a way of keeping tracking of all the stuff that development churns up. It should be light, easy to use. I wrote my own Web one. It looked really neat... pity no one used it. We regressed to Post-It and Excel. Sigh! -- StewartBaird

See also DefectTracking and click the title to see more related pages.

Is anybody able to add some comparisons? Such as: I used x, then tried y, before settling on z. I don't really have the time to try all these options.

CategorySoftwareTool CategoryConfigurationManagement

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