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A system for tracking code defects is vital for a successful application rollout
Software developers know what it's like to manage requests for bug fixes and modifications. A good defect-tracking system can be instrumental in helping developers ensure the success of an application-deployment effort.
A defect-tracking package should be an integral part of any softwaredevelopment project-in fact, it may be the best tool available to help a manager determine whether an application is ready for prime time.
For this review, I limited the choice of defect-tracking products by two criteria: those that use a database to store defect reports, and those that run on Windows NT and Windows 95. You can find defecttracking systems for other operating systems, but Windows NT is an excellent departmental database server, and defect tracking tends to be a department-level operation. Each product also supports an intranet component.
For this review, I looked at PVCS Tracker from Intersolv, Track for Windows from Soffront Software, TeamTrack from TeamShare, Track Record from UnderWare, BugBase from Archimedes Software, and QA Radar from Segue Software. Testing was performed on a Microsoft Windows NT Small Business Server, which included SQL Server 6.5, with a 300-MHz Pentium II processor, ample disk space, and 64 Mbytes of RAM.
A good defect-tracking system will let the administrator define additional informational fields for defects beyond the standard defect title, author, problem, severity, priority, and resolution information fields. Defect-tracking systems also need to permit security based on job title. The package should also let administrators define new priorities and security groups, and assign user permissions based on project.
When a new defect or enhancement request is posted to the defect-tracking system, it must be able to notify one or more users automatically, either through E-mail or via the user's in-box within the tracking application.
Some defect-tracking products are integrated with source-codemanagement tools. PVCS Tracker, for example, is tightly integrated with Intersolv's PVCS Version Control product.
A defect-tracking system must permit unlimited commenting for any defect and keep track of the number of hours spent testing each product. Correlating defects with hours of testing or lines of code can be a useful metric for determining if a product is complete.
The entire industry needs to add standard APIs to these...