Slashdot Mirror
Pushing the Need for Bug Tracking?
NorthwestWolf asks: "I am the sole developer for a medium-sized company. My work consists of developing intranet applications for the production, accounting, shipping and engineering activities at all of our locations. My dilema is that my boss is dead set on the idea that we DO NOT need a bug tracking system, nor does he feel that we have a need for version tracking. As much as I strive to write perfect code...that doesn't happen. Most recently, I asked to install a lightweight piece of bug tracking software that would not tie into the database, and was written in PHP (what our apps are already developed in). This was to be for me, and me alone; although my boss does produce some code and is the reason that I would like version tracking (he has made changes to my code that I was not aware of until I noticed problems with certain functions). So, to those of you who are, or have been in a similiar situation...what are you doing, or what have you done to get critical development tools such as these implemented at work?"
It's inconceivable to me how anybody could write code without version control. Sure, maybe a throwaway script or two, but even my shortest simplest programs are in CVS or darcs (darcs is great for individuals, btw, as well as teams).
.. if you make a mistake, you have to remember how it was and manually put it back. Yuck!
How do you experiment with new versions? How do you try out a new idea and then throw it away?
How do you work with multiple people? How do you track who did what? Hell, how do you see your own day-to-day changes? I edit my programs, I change a few files here and there, then I run cvs diff to review what I did. I can't imagine working without that.
Suppose your software ends up being useful for a client, and you have to maintain two versions? How do you do that without version control?
How do you copy your code to multiple locations? My apps are checked out on my powerbook, my desktop, the staging server, etc., etc., I can't imagine how I'd work from multiple locations without it.
I think I read somewhere that writing code with version control is like a word processor without an Undo feature
I would recommend either quitting (your boss is clearly gonna drag you down one way or another) or setting up simple version control (CVS, Darcs, SVN) and just using it yourself and checking his changes in yourself. I.e., use rsync or something to keep your "master code base" in sync with a local workspace. It will save your ass on many occasions, as well as allow you to experiment, and your boss doesn't have to know the difference.
As for bug tracking, well, we don't use any special program. To track bugs we just post messages in Basecamp (www.basecamphq.com) and refer to the URLs in the check-in log. This might be good enough for you. You could set up a message board or Wiki for this purpose.
But damn, no version control.. like I said, inconceivable!!!
Quite true. Last year, I lead a team on a MAJOR project for a huge client. At that point our department didn't really have a good bug tracker in place, though some were toying with setting Bugzilla up.
Since I knew the client was going to be entering bugs as well (during alpha and beta stages), and that Bugzilla is a pain in the ass for the developers themselves to use, I decided to grab a copy of Mantis, which I had used at a previous job and knew had a fairly simple interface that non-techs would be ok with.
The next thing you know, our project manager was exclaiming "How in the hell did you manage to find and install a tool that 1) People are actually USING to log bugs, 2) Devs are updating with notes and status CONSISTENTLY, and 3) Management and the client are using to see where things are???".
She was shocked (hey, a lot of companies have trouble getting buy-in and usage for tools) and after that project, Mantis became the standard in-house Bug Tracker. We modified it to suit our needs for some other tasks, and it is now a make-shift trouble ticket system too, though some of us would rather move back to RT for that, and use Mantis soley for bugs. But at least it's used, and is a major tool in the chain. All change control info is in there.