Bug Tools not in U2 Shops.

In U2 world (Universe, Unidata, and D3) very few of us use any bug related tools.  Maybe your IT department uses a spreadsheet for all outstanding tasks, or maybe you use email from users to fix and change software.  At U2logic many years ago we thought we would create our own tool.  We definitely were suffering from NIH (not invented here) mentality.  Our tool looked great because it was web based, but it suffered from a lack of vision of what was important.

One of the more important components was email feedback.  Whenever a task or problem is requested of you or your programmers, it should be visible to the entire staff.  That way if someone is on vacation or it is after hours then many eyeballs can and will be watching the bug tool queue.  When status is changed on your task or problem, the user that requested the task or pointed out the problem should be emailed with that notification.

Another important component that was missing in U2logic homegrown version was the ability to upload pictures.  We did not even comprehend how important this was to users.  Some users would spend hours designing a report or web form and we would either not pay attention to it or we would do our own thing for whatever reason.  With a great bug tool programmers and users should be able to upload screen captures, spreadsheets, text documents or PDF’s, so that everyone can visually see what is wrong or what direction they would like to go.

One component we have found that users and programmers must have is ability to edit and re-edit their comments.  We cannot tell you how many times some of programmers cannot spell and that makes the bug tool and the issue look bad.  We have found that users have sent us off on tangents because of bad descriptions of the problems.  Now, they still have bad descriptions but we can edit them back to reality.

After we abandoned our in-house tool, we went to Bugzilla which was very good but not well received by our users.  We have dropped Bugzilla for JIRA last year which is a paid tool unlike Bugzilla which was free.  Whatever tool you decide to use make sure it fits within your organization and those you support.