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Bug tracking system (Read 4068 times)
kkmfg
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Re: Bug tracking system
Reply #15 - 09/24/08 at 08:42:34
 
Quote from GasGiant on 09/24/08 at 05:21:05:
Sounds like you two have it covered. One less thing for me to lose sleep over  Smiley

 
Yeah... You see... I would setup a bug tracker for ISTech tomorrow if I thought that they were going to start using it right then.  
 
They seem to indicate that they, however, do not have the resources to maintain a public facing bug tracker. So setting one up does no good if it's not going to be used.
 
I'm not entirely opposed to waiting until you get the time to setup what you had talked about doing. That is, if they'll use it. The bug tracker needn't take anywhere near the amount of time to maintain as it takes to debug. It's pretty straight forward really... Bugs are added in an unconfirmed state. The programmers or QA people or whoever check to see if it's really a bug. If so they change the status to confirmed. When they fix it they update the status to fixed. The initial bug reports can even be done by the users. That's how practically ever other tracker I've ever seen works. You give as much detailed info as you can when you report. Some bugs will be marked as non bugs. Existing software already does all of this and more. Evo is not so different from any other software package. This all works on many, many other projects. I've seen projects with one programmer have a bug tracker. How else can the end users and the developers be on the same page?
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Collin
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GasGiant
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Re: Bug tracking system
Reply #16 - 09/24/08 at 09:31:42
 
As I mentioned, I like and use bug tracking software and I usually roll my own. I have three separate projects with separate tracking systems. They don't take up a lot of my time, but then I don't have anywhere near the number of users.  
 
As Allen has outlined, this forum (along with direct requests) acts as the input end of his tracking system. Once bugs are verified they are nearly complete. So, the only missing link is the part where you show a list of bugs that have not been verified yet. Where things break down is in verifying bugs. It is work and requires a good deal of product knowledge at times. I'm all for having a list that volunteers could work on, but this forum works well as an initial place to post your problems and it should continue that way. So I don't think that asking users to enter their questions on a bug list is the way to go. It might be better for someone (or two or three) to take things from here that do not get solved right away and add them to a "to be verified" list.  
 
Whatever is done, if it does not add value for both the user and the programmers... probably a waste of time at best.
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Lynn_Pantic
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Re: Bug tracking system
Reply #17 - 09/24/08 at 09:36:46
 
Colin & Collin -
 
Allen and I are putting together a list of the things we generally need when a bug is reported.  We will send that to you and, if you can put something together, we will try to use it and see how it works out.  One thing that needs to be determined is where on the website to put the link to the bug tracker (I would suggest www.istechsupport.com/status.php so people can check to see if a patch has already been posted before reporting a problem) and whether some sort of login would be required to report and/or see the status of prior reports.  I know these points have been raised previously in this and other threads but if we are really going to do this, we need to decide.
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kkmfg
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Re: Bug tracking system
Reply #18 - 09/24/08 at 12:14:50
 
Cool... And the forum has been a decent place for bug posting but I really do think that the only truly organized and thorough way to go about it is to use a more formal bug tracker. Forums tend to be messy and it's hard to really see which issues are really issues, which are still outstanding, etc from looking at a forum index. A bug tracker, even if it is not one that most users would use, is still an easier place to go for concise answers.
 
So, it's cool that ISTech is willing to give it a try. I hope it works out. If not, well... I can be wrong from time to time. I do think it's definately worth a shot though!
 
As for the lingering questions: If people think that the forum is easiest to report problems to (and it appears such is the case) then it would probably be best to have logins for the bug tracker and have a few people be responsible for adding content and a very few people be responsible for updating the status of reports. This also makes bug reports more consistent and reliable as they'll be input by people who have more experience in doing so. Everyone could still view the page to see what is out there. Sometimes you get an error and you want to know if it's reported or not and if it's fixed. You very well might be able to find that info on the forum but I believe it will be at least a little easier to get such information from a bug tracker.
 
It also allows for a sort of double edged sword. It shows the progress that the application in question is making - good or bad. If there are 300 open bug reports and 10 things fixed then that's bad. But if there are 1000 total bugs over a span of 5 years and 990 of them are fixed then that's good. Some people might see the # of bugs reported and be shocked in a bad way but others might see that bugs tend to get squashed in X number of days and find that to be a good sign. It really could go either way.
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Collin
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