Bugzilla
Bugzilla is Bug-Tracking application. Such applications allow individuals or groups of developers to keep track of outstanding bugs and enhancement requests. Written in Perl, Bugzilla is now the de-facto standard defect-tracking system against which all others are measured. In fact, Bugzilla is used by many corporations for their own internal software development.
Bugzilla has matured immensely, and now boasts many advanced features. These include:
- Integrated, product-based granular security schema
- Inter-bug dependencies and dependency graphing
- Advanced reporting capabilities
- A robust, stable RDBMS back-end
- Extensive configurability
- A very well-understood and well-thought-out natural bug resolution protocol
- E-mail, XML, console, and HTTP APIs
- Available integration with automated software configuration management systems, including Perforce and CVS (through the Bugzilla e-mail interface and checkin/checkout scripts)
- … and many other features.
Why should companies use Bugzilla?
Many companies are finding that integrated defect-tracking systems reduce downtime, increase productivity, and raise customer satisfaction with their systems. Along with full disclosure, an open bug-tracker allows manufacturers to keep in touch with their clients and resellers, to communicate about problems effectively throughout the data management chain. Many corporations have also discovered that defect-tracking helps reduce costs by providing IT support accountability, telephone support knowledge bases, and a common, well-understood system for accounting for unusual system or software issues.
Bugzilla is very adaptable to various situations. Known uses currently include IT support queues, Systems Administration deployment management, chip design and development problem tracking (both pre-and-post fabrication), and software and hardware bug tracking for luminaries such as Redhat, Loki software, Linux-Mandrake, and VA Systems. Combined with systems such as CVS, Bonsai, or Perforce SCM, Bugzilla provides a powerful, easy-to-use solution to configuration management and replication problems
Bugzilla can dramatically increase the productivity and accountability of individual employees by providing a documented workflow and positive feedback for good performance. How many times do you wake up in the morning, remembering that you were supposed to do something today, but you just can't quite remember? Put it in Bugzilla, and you have a record of it from which you can extrapolate milestones, predict product versions for integration, and by using Bugzilla's e-mail integration features be able to follow the discussion trail that led to critical decisions.