Developing Apps in the Absence of Issue Tracking Tools

People often assume that issue tracking is similar to a version control.  Ever imagined developing a software app without a bug tracker? Well, it may haunt you as a tester, but yeah there are other ways to move forward with software development. Once you are encouraged to try new ways, most of the teams do not want to go back to using issue tracking tools. As testers, we have had many instances working with a bug tracking system, including Apple’s Radar, FogBugz, Jira, etc. to name a few. These systems are incredible and help in many ways, but they do have serious issues as well. However, there were downsides to each tool, and it was right that there were problems with these tools, yet the reasons were not completely true. A few problems were regarding the systemic issues of the big tracking process in general. On the contrary, when these tools were used as a part of the project management system, the problems were understandable.

Bug Reports

One of the most favourite and famous topics that tends to catch everyone’s attention are the bug reports. If QA teams are relying on an issue tracker, then probably they would be wondering how to keep a track of the reports.  In case they are not using an issue tracking tool, the best option is to take one of the two approaches. If it is critical, use Kanban, which is also used for tracking work items, but it has more tighter constraints. It does not keep testers 100% occupied, which allows them to have more capacity to deal with the issues in the applications. however if the issue is non-critical, leave it alone. It is true that testers cannot just throw away all the bugs, there could be critical ones too. But practically speaking, there is a cost associated with recording the non-critical bug reports as well. It is imperative for teams to understand that they have more important feature work and critical bug fixes to deal with. They cannot afford to get distracted and overburdened by less important tasks especially if it is going to have a bigger impact on your customers. 

The Downside of Issue Tracking

Distraction – It is true that there is no true 100% bug free app. Testers over burden themselves in the quest for getting hold of all bugs at once. 

Poor Communication – These tools have a high tendency for poor communication, which is not a good thing for QA teams.

Stale Bugs – Bug databases can often contain stale bugs, which is another downside of using bug tracker, which can be a complete waste of time. 

Project Management – 
We have seen a number of advantages of using issue tracking tools, but never imagined how software applications can be developed without these tools. Since it can consume a lot of tester’s time, they should consider other options when they have tight time constraints.