Problem report management is an inevitable part of the software development life cycle. A defect tracking system or bug tracking system is application software that keeps a track of reported software problems/bugs in a software project or product.
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C#.NET development or any other software development we always need a defect tracking mechanism and an established tool to manage the bugs in the application.
A defect tracking or issue tacking software application is a piece of software created to assist software engineers and quality assurance teams with their bug tracking work.
Using this type of bug tracking tools is essential to keep an eye on any issues with a software system and to make sure the problems are known for the stake holders involved on them to fix them, and what type of changes have been made.
When using bug tracking systems, the most common types of information discovered are,
State: These precisely identify the status of the bug. Whether it has been verified as a bug, whether it has been fixed, and whether or not Quality Assurance verified the fix.
Environments: These show where the bug was found in the computing environment.
Location: The location of the bug is on the screen and the URL associated with it, if there is one. also screenshots and other attachments will be provided.
Assigned To: The stake holder currently responsible for fixing the bug.
Criticality: This field is used to prioritise bugs assigned to it. How critical the application is, whether a show stopper/ blocker, major issue or minor one.
Not only in software development, issue tracking is very helpful and demanded in various other kinds of customer support scenarios also to have better tracking and management.
There are Lots of commercial tools available which make this process extremely easy. But if you are a freelancer or running a small software development shop then buying these highly-priced premium tools does not make much sense.
In such conditions, you do not need to depend on Excel sheets or other similar ways to track your issues and activities inefficiently.
There are many feature-rich best bug tracking tools available to download and use freely. Most of them are open-source also.
Bugzilla is the well-known open-source bug tracking tool used extensively by small, medium, and large projects.
Bugzilla is a well maintained and supported bug tracking tool which is used by really big software systems like the Apache development team, Linux kernel development team, etc.
There are many other big organizations using Bugzilla for defect tracking.
Bugzilla is developed in Perl. Bugzilla has support to works on various databases.
BugTracker.NET is a web-based Open source bug tracker tool that is absolutely free.
This tool is written in ASP.NET with C# as code behind the language. Microsoft SQL Server is used as the back-end database.
BugNET is another free open source bug tracking tool built in ASP.NET.
This tool can also be used for other Project issue management and customer support features.
Its extensive reporting feature and mail notification facilities make it the best choice for small, medium, and even large-sized projects.
MantisBT is another popular free open source bug tracking system.
Mantis is developed in PHP with support for databases including MySQL, MS SQL, PostgreSQL and more.
Mantis claims that most of the web servers can act as a client.
Trac is a web-based free issue tracking system developed by the open-source developer communityedgewall.org.
Trac is developed in Python and provides an integrated Wiki, an interface to version control systems.
RequestTracker is a web-based issue tracking system best suited for small team projects. It contains only essential
It contains only essential features. Request Tracker is developed in Perl and runs on Apache and light HTTP servers.
It works with databases MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL Lite.
This is a very basic web-based problem report management application with multi-database support (Access and SQL Server)
A bug tracking tool is required to efficiently manage a software defects’ life cycle. A most effective defect tracking system will handle the process of finding, isolating, fixing and managing the state of the bugs to save time and money.
When identified a defect ensure the bug hasn’t already been reported
If it is fresh noticed defect, make a new bug report.
Identify the Severity.
Assign to the respective stake holder.
Stake Holders will analyze the defect, Prioritize based on severity and impact.
Fix the defect as per decision.
Assign back to the creator
Test and close the defect.
Change Requests are handled as per procedures.
There are a few essentials elements for filing a thorough bug report for proper defect management.They are,
Defect ID
Title
Environment in which the defect seen
Steps to reproduce the defect
Expected Outcome
Actual Outcome
Screenshots and Other attachments for supporting the defect analysis
Severity
Priority
Hope you find this list of best free software bug tracking tools extremely useful. We would like to hear from you about your feedback and any other free tools apart from the list. Take a moment and comment here and share the article. Keep connected with us for more tips and learning.
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