For those who don’t know, a bug is an error or a flaw in a computer program that causes it to produce undesired results. These errors are mostly due to mistakes made by people in either a program’s design or code while some are caused by compilers producing incorrect code.
Issue tracking is the process in which bugs are reported and their progress is tracked until they are resolved. Bugs in this process are defined as a deviation from requirements while other frequently used terminologies include trouble tickets, fault management, change management, problem tracking, etc.
To ensure a successful process, organizations and teams prefer to leverage issue tracking tools that can be very helpful in coding and testing phases of the development. These tools can be used for various other purposes such as contact management, help desk situations, simple task lists, issue tracking, etc. where the tracking aspect is focused instead of what is being tracked.
These tools aren’t merely restricted to track, as they extend to track feature requests or enhancements as well as inquiries.
The Objectives of Issue Tracking Tools
- Issue tracking tools allow managers to access employee skills and assign them tasks based on the understanding of their abilities.
- These tools give managers the ability to track the progress of bugs once they are assigned.
- Various reports can be generated by these tools for managers as well as employees.
Essential for Issue Tracking Tools:
Reporting Facility
Most of the tools allow teams to report comprehensively, mentioning every detail regarding the bug in fields such as screenshots, severity, module, environment, etc.
Assigning
Managers should be able to easily assign bugs to team members they think are capable of the job.
Progressing Through the Life Cycle Stages
One word: workflow.
History
History and work log should be available so that employees can keep track of their work.
Reports
Graphs and charts help managers analyze and make decisions better without having to read descriptions of each and every bug themselves.
Storage and Retrieval
Every entity in a software testing process should be uniquely identifiable. The same rule applies to bugs as well. The solution issue tracking tools provide for this problem is that they ID every single bug. This way, the bug information can be stored, retrieved, and organized without any hassle.
Components of Issue Tracking Tools
- Interface (front-end)
- Database (back-end)
The database is a major component of issue tracking tools that record facts about known bugs. These facts include the identity of the person who reported the bug, program behavior, severity, the time it was reported, and programmers who are working on the fix.
Limitations of Issue Tracking Tools
- Some tools only allow permanent employees the access
- There many tools in the market that aren’t compatible with the latest systems
- Lack of use of advanced techniques to check the authorization
- Some tools don’t allow dropping the employee from a course without completion
