[Fwd: Bug Reporting / Issue Tracking System ?]

[Andreas Ericsson]

Marc Powell wrote:
> On Jun 25, 2008, at 3:14 PM, Jay R. Ashworth wrote:
> 
>>> Oh, I'm all for ticketing systems... as long as they aren't giving
>> people the impression that work is likely to be done which will not in
>> fact ever be done.  Have you looked at The Original Bugzilla  
>> lately?  ;-)
> 
> Has anyone bothered to ask Ethan why he has chosen not to use the SF  
> bugtracker?

There are tons of reasons not to use the SF bugtracker (it sucks). I
think I can answer why he's not using *any* bugtracker, drawing from
memories of an email thread way way back when someone wanted a single
bugtracker (and got quite vehemant about it towards the end).

A bugtracker is a fire-and-forget kind of sink where users are
supposed to be able to add bugs, feature-requests and patches. Since
the options boil down to
a) Random users have "add bug" access to the tracker.
b) Someone manages the bugtracker.

The problem with a) is that the data in the tracker quickly gets a
very poor signal-to-noise ratio, where people post RTFM issues, minor
annoyances and duplicate bug reports (these things happen because
most people are lazy retards). The use of the tracker quickly
deteriorates to the point where some people moan about there being
issues in the tracker that are 2+ years old and nobody cares about
them.

The problem with b) is that it requires additional effort from
the developer(s) (one extra place to check for bugs) and, if such
a one is present, the tracker manager. Otherwise it's devs again.

You'll still have to have the mailing list for pooling ideas and
random chitchat, so everything that should have gone to the tracker
has a chance of ending up on the mailing list instead, where someone
has to move it to the tracker and then get to work on it. An extra
step = bad. We're talking about people working pro bono here, so
there's no way of forcing anyone to do anything, which means noone
will do the boring parts, ie. copy-paste stuff from the mailing list
to the tracker.

As things stand today, Ethan is pretty much the only one fixing bugs
and adding features to Nagios, so he can manage his own little todo
list any old way he wants. I'm guessing he's not willing to change
his workflow without some significant benefit for himself, such as
a second developer, or a group of developers, asking for a tracker
so they can coordinate their work.

Personally, I wouldn't care very much for users wanting a bugtracker,
because they wouldn't be the ones using it (except to report bugs,
but on average people do that so poorly they might as well not
bother).

I *would* care if some proven developers stepped up and said
"hey, we've got x active bugs and y feature-requests, but we have no
idea of knowing who's doing what without constantly talking to each
other. I've set up this tracker here and added all the current issues
to it, and I'm gonna be using that, so check there if you want to
know what you can leave for me". It's the difference between saving
time and wasting it.

> 
> p.s. IMHE, there are not a lot of bugs related to nagios-stable and  
> any real, verified bugs get fixed relatively quickly. Could be my rose- 
> colored glasses though.
> 

It's not just your rose-colored glasses. Ethan's got a very good sense
of priority and he's very keen on keeping a good track-record. Besides,
if there are ever real show-stopper bugs in Nagios, I know that I would at
least be instantly assigned full-time to fixing it, and I think many
other companies have similar priorities if it ever gets close to
affecting their customers.

-- 
Andreas Ericsson                   andreas.ericsson at op5.se
OP5 AB                             www.op5.se
Tel: +46 8-230225                  Fax: +46 8-230231

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