There is a rapid growth in the demand for faster software releases in the software development industry while keeping a close eye on the quality assurance process. So when a firm develops software for its clients, it is obvious that they need to equip their QA teams with certain software testing and issue tracking tools. Obviously, they are necessary to get all the testing processes in tight deadlines. Anyone who develops software understands that bugs tend to appear throughout the process.
How has the Need for Issue Tracking Tools Emerged?
In the beginning, a QA expert may even be using spreadsheets or post-it-notes to track the bugs needed to be fixed. But if a project involves more than one team member, then they will need a more robust bug tracking system in order to coordinate with the team efficiency. Well, testers are also known as bug identifiers. Whether they call it a defect, bug, issue, fault, failure, or incident - their primary job is to identify, record, report, prioritize, and track them. Although teams have been using excel sheets for ages to record or track them, yet they have become obsolete due to the density of projects.
So as the project size increases and the number of test cycles grows, it becomes extremely important to have a mechanism that can make the issue tracking process simpler and consistent. It allows QA teams to focus on identifying and resolving more issues in the application under testing (AUT) rather than managing the identifying more issues. With the passage of time, there is a great evolution in the number and nature of issue tracking tools that are available to begin a new software project and deliver it successfully.
Essential Features of An Issue Tracking System
As a general rule, there are some common features that are mandatory to be present in these tracking tools. Let’s have a look at a few that are necessary for an issue tracking tool:
Reporting Bugs - A detailed view of all the bugs reported that will provide testers all information about the bugs that they need to know.
Assigning - It allows managers to assign bugs to different team members and tracks their progress.
Prioritizing - High priority or bugs with high severity need to be prioritized in order to make it through the issue tracking process easily.
Workflow - Progressing through the bug life cycle stages.
History - Work log or comments on all bugs identified and recorded in the system.
Preparing reports - These reports are available in the form of graphs or charts.
Storage and Retrieval - Each entity in a testing process needs to be identifiable. This applies to bugs too. So, an issue tracking tool should provide an ID, they can be used to store, access, retrieve, and organize information related to bugs.
The above-mentioned features are absolutely necessary for any issue tracking system that is aimed at helping QA experts in handling and managing issues efficiently. Besides these, there can be some additional features such as watching, saving searches, showing the issue info in a live stream, etc. Although these features are convenient, yet they have evolved the issue tracking tools and made it difficult for testers while making a choice as to what tool to use. We know that the tools available in the market are innumerable, with some of them being the perfect solution and the others that won’t be up to the mark. However, the features of these tools set them apart from the others in the market. With a wide range of issue tracking systems and tools, it becomes challenging for QA teams to make the right choice.
Conclusion
For starting a new software development project, it is important for QA teams to have the right set of tools to steer their development in the right direction. It is not possible for modern QA teams to move forward without being equipped with tools and processes as they need to manage multiple aspects of a project without compromising quality. Meeting close deadlines and focusing on quality assurance, makes their job more challenging than ever before. Amidst all the chaos of meeting the rising demand for software releases while vouching for their quality, issue tracking tools play an important role in a project’s success. Teams can either choose from a list of the best issue tracking tools or some companies have developed their own issue tracking systems that help their teams to move forward without delays and failures.