Issue trackers
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I've used a zillion issue trackers and project management systems and always, without fail, come back to using Excel or even just notepad. This is ridiculous given all the info I could be tracking that could (and should) be helping me. Instead of asking what issue tracker or PM software you use, I was wondering what features you really rely on to get the job done. For me its: - Speed - Simplicity - Multiuser, multi-project - Drag and drop stuff / minimum clicks. Be as fast to modify as Notepad or Excel - Track priorities, status, assignees, due dates, milestones - Roll up of values (eg add all the time estimates for child items and show it on the parent) - Email alerts - free form comments within each item - uploads of screenshots or docs - tie into source code control What do the guys who actually do this stuff properly find the most important?
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
I'd be curious to know why you always come back to the spreadsheet paradigm. All the PM software that are around try to address most of the features you list and they specialize in that. So what is it that they are lacking ?
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I've used a zillion issue trackers and project management systems and always, without fail, come back to using Excel or even just notepad. This is ridiculous given all the info I could be tracking that could (and should) be helping me. Instead of asking what issue tracker or PM software you use, I was wondering what features you really rely on to get the job done. For me its: - Speed - Simplicity - Multiuser, multi-project - Drag and drop stuff / minimum clicks. Be as fast to modify as Notepad or Excel - Track priorities, status, assignees, due dates, milestones - Roll up of values (eg add all the time estimates for child items and show it on the parent) - Email alerts - free form comments within each item - uploads of screenshots or docs - tie into source code control What do the guys who actually do this stuff properly find the most important?
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
For me its most of the things you've listed with one or two adjustments. "Drag and drop stuff" not really 'a necesity', more of a 'nice to have'. - Completely Configurable - Advance/Strong search capabilities (to the point of database querying) - Pluggable (sky is the limit) - Ability to use with other tools.
"Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence." << please vote!! >>
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I've used a zillion issue trackers and project management systems and always, without fail, come back to using Excel or even just notepad. This is ridiculous given all the info I could be tracking that could (and should) be helping me. Instead of asking what issue tracker or PM software you use, I was wondering what features you really rely on to get the job done. For me its: - Speed - Simplicity - Multiuser, multi-project - Drag and drop stuff / minimum clicks. Be as fast to modify as Notepad or Excel - Track priorities, status, assignees, due dates, milestones - Roll up of values (eg add all the time estimates for child items and show it on the parent) - Email alerts - free form comments within each item - uploads of screenshots or docs - tie into source code control What do the guys who actually do this stuff properly find the most important?
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
Chris Maunder wrote:
all the info I could be tracking that could (and should) be helping me
That's the crux of the matter, isn't it? My suggestion is to identify a small number of things that are important for you to track, find a tool that supports those things, and go. Bug trackers are notorious for feature metastasis. Managers think they can use them as automated cat herders to bring those unruly software morons in line. They love adding rules, priorities, responsible this, approval that, update by this date, send to this customer, don't send to that customer, and so on. Any time you think "it would be nice", or a feature comes across as "cool", drop it from your list. After a lot of experience with these in a number of environments, complexity doesn't serve anyone. The tracker I suffer with is a home-grown web app. The only good news is that the IT guy responsible for it is one of my running partners :). Instead, it sounds like you want a tool to help organize development activity. Keep track of the problem areas, let you set priorities, assign issues to engineers, track progress, and so on. While I've not used it, I know a fair number of folks who like FogBugz[^] from Fog Creek (Joel Spolsky). It sounds like it supports most of the features you mentioned.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
I've used a zillion issue trackers and project management systems and always, without fail, come back to using Excel or even just notepad. This is ridiculous given all the info I could be tracking that could (and should) be helping me. Instead of asking what issue tracker or PM software you use, I was wondering what features you really rely on to get the job done. For me its: - Speed - Simplicity - Multiuser, multi-project - Drag and drop stuff / minimum clicks. Be as fast to modify as Notepad or Excel - Track priorities, status, assignees, due dates, milestones - Roll up of values (eg add all the time estimates for child items and show it on the parent) - Email alerts - free form comments within each item - uploads of screenshots or docs - tie into source code control What do the guys who actually do this stuff properly find the most important?
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
In addition to the features you mention, I want to be able to direct the issue ticket to any person or group I want for additional information. If there is any kind of "process flow" in the system, I want to be able to exit a flow, and later reenter it, without having to close the ticket and reopen it, or some other drastic measure. I also would like it to be hooked into email, so that one can send an email from the ticket itself. In addition, if I use my email client to reply to an email from a ticket, I would like that reply to be added to the ticket. Also, make it easy to provide all the reports that managers are wanting, such as priority lists, backlogs, age, etc. Since some of these issue trackers are also used as accountability trackers (accountability in general is very good; many implementations of accountability tracking suck), make it hard to change the things that are used to track accountability. For instance, if my research shows that a particular problem is due to the database server having been powered off, some low level tester shouldn't be able to change that to "Code Defect" without consultation.
Currently reading: "Gateway", by Frederik Pohl
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I've used a zillion issue trackers and project management systems and always, without fail, come back to using Excel or even just notepad. This is ridiculous given all the info I could be tracking that could (and should) be helping me. Instead of asking what issue tracker or PM software you use, I was wondering what features you really rely on to get the job done. For me its: - Speed - Simplicity - Multiuser, multi-project - Drag and drop stuff / minimum clicks. Be as fast to modify as Notepad or Excel - Track priorities, status, assignees, due dates, milestones - Roll up of values (eg add all the time estimates for child items and show it on the parent) - Email alerts - free form comments within each item - uploads of screenshots or docs - tie into source code control What do the guys who actually do this stuff properly find the most important?
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
We don't use an issue tracker per se - just Asana[^]. It's easy and does all of the things we need (not SCC, but we don't really need that). We think of it as an "organisational Notepad with Twitter style notifications".
Anna :rose: Tech Blog | Visual Lint "Why would anyone prefer to wield a weapon that takes both hands at once, when they could use a lighter (and obviously superior) weapon that allows you to wield multiple ones at a time, and thus supports multi-paradigm carnage?"
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I haven't used many - mainly because I use notepad and excel most of the time too... However, for me as a Dev the important things are extreme simplicity and tie-in with VS / Source control. My watch-word is configurable - if it is very configurable, don't touch it because it leads to being configured and played with rather than just going with what it has. One place I worked added so many different job statuses and rules for them that nobody could remember which was which. Sticking with simple - it needs (for me) Multi-user. Preferably multi-project but that can be managed I don't care too much about tracking - so long as I can see all outstanding tasks grouped by sprint, or area or whatever Free-form comments is an absolute must - as is attachments for screenshots, specs, discussion notes or whatever As a dev I want it to tie into VS so I can use my tool and just select which task I am working on, open it, read the docco, change the status etc. and then tie my check-in with the task. The thing I have noticed is that it is tempting to leap in and start using it 'live' rather than taking the time to learn about it and set it up right for your situation. Stick with Excel and 'play' with software to find the right settings for your environment...
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
_Maxxx_ wrote:
However, for me as a Dev the important things are extreme simplicity and tie-in with VS / Source control.
My watch-word is configurable - if it is very configurable, don't touch it because it leads to being configured and played with rather than just going with what it has. One place I worked added so many different job statuses and rules for them that nobody could remember which was which.Agree with _Maxxx_ on these points. A few jobs back, we used Tortoise SVN which integrated with whatever issue tracking we were using. Seems as if that helped the build process, as they could select out the updates which were tagged with tickets targeted for this release. On the configurtability issue, don't get carried away with workflows through the system. Identify the steps you need for "normal" changes, and really question any variations from that. I feel pretty strongly that both should follow the same process. The details of some steps might be different--for example, "requirements gathering" for a bug might simply be a one-line statement taking two minutes: "xxx is spelled incorrectly on page YYY", but that step should be there in all cases. [As a side note, it's good you said "Issue tracking" and not "bug tracking". The place I worked a couple jobs ago had two systems, one for tracking bugs and one for tracking changes. They couldn't get their heads around the idea that both types of requests were simply changes to our codebase.]
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I've used a zillion issue trackers and project management systems and always, without fail, come back to using Excel or even just notepad. This is ridiculous given all the info I could be tracking that could (and should) be helping me. Instead of asking what issue tracker or PM software you use, I was wondering what features you really rely on to get the job done. For me its: - Speed - Simplicity - Multiuser, multi-project - Drag and drop stuff / minimum clicks. Be as fast to modify as Notepad or Excel - Track priorities, status, assignees, due dates, milestones - Roll up of values (eg add all the time estimates for child items and show it on the parent) - Email alerts - free form comments within each item - uploads of screenshots or docs - tie into source code control What do the guys who actually do this stuff properly find the most important?
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
I use Microsoft's OneNote. It lets me share issues with the other OneNote users (programmers and main office liaison). Since it is a scrapbooking sort of product, I can add any supporting documentation to the initial e-mail. (I insist on e-mails of problems too avoid he said/she said witch hunting later) Outlook does not let me add comments to the original e-mail, so I export the e-mail to OneNote and then add comments and such as needed. OneNote tracks the authors of edits so we can see who and what changes were made to the document. I have three main sections, Future, Current, and Finished, where I move issues progressively through them. I'd prefer a little more automation to the system, but this works for me at the moment. BTW I used to use Excel as well when I was managing a larger group at another company, but upper management came in and wanted a "better" method that they could roll it out company wide and proceeded to produce something that was unusable. I maintained their worthless documentation and continued using Excel to get the real work done. We tried using Excel here, but OneNote's ability to combine documents and screenshots has proven to be superior for our needs.
Psychosis at 10 Film at 11 Those who do not remember the past, are doomed to repeat it. Those who do not remember the past, cannot build upon it.
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In addition to the features you mention, I want to be able to direct the issue ticket to any person or group I want for additional information. If there is any kind of "process flow" in the system, I want to be able to exit a flow, and later reenter it, without having to close the ticket and reopen it, or some other drastic measure. I also would like it to be hooked into email, so that one can send an email from the ticket itself. In addition, if I use my email client to reply to an email from a ticket, I would like that reply to be added to the ticket. Also, make it easy to provide all the reports that managers are wanting, such as priority lists, backlogs, age, etc. Since some of these issue trackers are also used as accountability trackers (accountability in general is very good; many implementations of accountability tracking suck), make it hard to change the things that are used to track accountability. For instance, if my research shows that a particular problem is due to the database server having been powered off, some low level tester shouldn't be able to change that to "Code Defect" without consultation.
Currently reading: "Gateway", by Frederik Pohl
The last company I worked at had a wonderful custom written system in Lotus Notes that tracked issues/requests through entry, assignment, analysis, programming, testing, and implementation. It allowed e-mail addresses that would be notified as each step of the process was finished. For example, a user makes a request, a manager assigns an analyst, the analyst gets an e-mail they have a task, when the analysis is over, the manager gets an e-mail, the manager can then assign a programmer (generally the analyst), and it continues with the stakeholder optionally being informed along the way. It was one of the few systems I liked at that company. I'd love to add that automation to the OneNote procedures I currently use. OneNote gives me the ability to add all sorts of additional notes, screenshots, and documentation the Lotus Notes system did not have.
Psychosis at 10 Film at 11 Those who do not remember the past, are doomed to repeat it. Those who do not remember the past, cannot build upon it.
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I've used a zillion issue trackers and project management systems and always, without fail, come back to using Excel or even just notepad. This is ridiculous given all the info I could be tracking that could (and should) be helping me. Instead of asking what issue tracker or PM software you use, I was wondering what features you really rely on to get the job done. For me its: - Speed - Simplicity - Multiuser, multi-project - Drag and drop stuff / minimum clicks. Be as fast to modify as Notepad or Excel - Track priorities, status, assignees, due dates, milestones - Roll up of values (eg add all the time estimates for child items and show it on the parent) - Email alerts - free form comments within each item - uploads of screenshots or docs - tie into source code control What do the guys who actually do this stuff properly find the most important?
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
What I like best about Excel is the ability to sort and do metrics and statistics easily. So for low cost simple issue tracking I prefer Excel over just a plain editor. With Excel the world is my oyster. If project managemnet is the main thing then I like Microsoft Project. The best heavyweight issue tracking system I ever used was home grown by a previous company in Lotus Notes. I don't like JIRA, although I have only used it a few months. It seems like too much flash and not enough of what I need - searching and sorting primarily. ClearQuest was also a monster but seemed easier to use than JIRA.
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I've used a zillion issue trackers and project management systems and always, without fail, come back to using Excel or even just notepad. This is ridiculous given all the info I could be tracking that could (and should) be helping me. Instead of asking what issue tracker or PM software you use, I was wondering what features you really rely on to get the job done. For me its: - Speed - Simplicity - Multiuser, multi-project - Drag and drop stuff / minimum clicks. Be as fast to modify as Notepad or Excel - Track priorities, status, assignees, due dates, milestones - Roll up of values (eg add all the time estimates for child items and show it on the parent) - Email alerts - free form comments within each item - uploads of screenshots or docs - tie into source code control What do the guys who actually do this stuff properly find the most important?
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
Regarding connectivity, could you pl. rate your client preferences (most important == 1)?
- Web browser
- Windows desktop
- Android tablet/phone
- iPad/iPhone
- Windows phone
- C# API
- Other (please specify)
Thanks, /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
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Regarding connectivity, could you pl. rate your client preferences (most important == 1)?
- Web browser
- Windows desktop
- Android tablet/phone
- iPad/iPhone
- Windows phone
- C# API
- Other (please specify)
Thanks, /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
1. Web browser 2. Windows desktop Android tablet/phone 3. iPad/iPhone Windows phone C# API 4. Other: Web API (Json)
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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1. Web browser 2. Windows desktop Android tablet/phone 3. iPad/iPhone Windows phone C# API 4. Other: Web API (Json)
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
Another question: would built-in support for agile development be useful or is that a nice-to-have? Thanks, /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
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Another question: would built-in support for agile development be useful or is that a nice-to-have? Thanks, /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
What specific support do you mean?
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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What specific support do you mean?
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
Things like tracking resource load and burndown rate. /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
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What specific support do you mean?
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
Also, is meta-data customization (e.g. priority level definitions, workflows) a must-have or a nice-to-have? Thanks, /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
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Also, is meta-data customization (e.g. priority level definitions, workflows) a must-have or a nice-to-have? Thanks, /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
Very important. We chop and change our terms reasonably often.
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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Very important. We chop and change our terms reasonably often.
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
"Terms" as in priority, severity, etc? What about workflow customization - basic, detailed or indifferent? /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
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"Terms" as in priority, severity, etc? What about workflow customization - basic, detailed or indifferent? /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
Ravi Bhavnani wrote:
Terms" as in priority, severity, etc?
yes
Ravi Bhavnani wrote:
What about workflow customization
indifferent. Let me set a status as I need to set it.
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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Ravi Bhavnani wrote:
Terms" as in priority, severity, etc?
yes
Ravi Bhavnani wrote:
What about workflow customization
indifferent. Let me set a status as I need to set it.
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
Thanks! This is valuable feedback. Stay tuned. /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com