| <chapter id="introduction"> |
| <title>Introduction</title> |
| |
| <section id="whatis"> |
| <title>What is Bugzilla?</title> |
| |
| <para> |
| Bugzilla is a bug- or issue-tracking system. Bug-tracking |
| systems allow individual or groups of developers effectively to keep track |
| of outstanding problems with their product. |
| Bugzilla was originally |
| written by Terry Weissman in a programming language called TCL, to |
| replace a rudimentary bug-tracking database used internally by Netscape |
| Communications. Terry later ported Bugzilla to Perl from TCL, and in Perl |
| it remains to this day. Most commercial defect-tracking software vendors |
| at the time charged enormous licensing fees, and Bugzilla quickly became |
| a favorite of the open-source crowd (with its genesis in the open-source |
| browser project, Mozilla). It is now the de-facto standard |
| defect-tracking system against which all others are measured. |
| </para> |
| |
| <para>Bugzilla boasts many advanced features. These include: |
| <itemizedlist> |
| <listitem> |
| <para>Powerful searching</para> |
| </listitem> |
| |
| <listitem> |
| <para>User-configurable email notifications of bug changes</para> |
| </listitem> |
| |
| <listitem> |
| <para>Full change history</para> |
| </listitem> |
| |
| <listitem> |
| <para>Inter-bug dependency tracking and graphing</para> |
| </listitem> |
| |
| <listitem> |
| <para>Excellent attachment management</para> |
| </listitem> |
| |
| <listitem> |
| <para>Integrated, product-based, granular security schema</para> |
| </listitem> |
| |
| <listitem> |
| <para>Fully security-audited, and runs under Perl's taint mode</para> |
| </listitem> |
| |
| <listitem> |
| <para>A robust, stable RDBMS back-end</para> |
| </listitem> |
| |
| <listitem> |
| <para>Web, XML, email and console interfaces</para> |
| </listitem> |
| |
| <listitem> |
| <para>Completely customisable and/or localisable web user |
| interface</para> |
| </listitem> |
| |
| <listitem> |
| <para>Extensive configurability</para> |
| </listitem> |
| |
| <listitem> |
| <para>Smooth upgrade pathway between versions</para> |
| </listitem> |
| </itemizedlist> |
| </para> |
| </section> |
| |
| <section id="why"> |
| <title>Why Should We Use Bugzilla?</title> |
| |
| <para>For many years, defect-tracking software has remained principally |
| the domain of large software development houses. Even then, most shops |
| never bothered with bug-tracking software, and instead simply relied on |
| shared lists and email to monitor the status of defects. This procedure |
| is error-prone and tends to cause those bugs judged least significant by |
| developers to be dropped or ignored.</para> |
| |
| <para>These days, many companies are finding that integrated |
| defect-tracking systems reduce downtime, increase productivity, and raise |
| customer satisfaction with their systems. Along with full disclosure, an |
| open bug-tracker allows manufacturers to keep in touch with their clients |
| and resellers, to communicate about problems effectively throughout the |
| data management chain. Many corporations have also discovered that |
| defect-tracking helps reduce costs by providing IT support |
| accountability, telephone support knowledge bases, and a common, |
| well-understood system for accounting for unusual system or software |
| issues.</para> |
| |
| <para>But why should |
| <emphasis>you</emphasis> |
| |
| use Bugzilla?</para> |
| |
| <para>Bugzilla is very adaptable to various situations. Known uses |
| currently include IT support queues, Systems Administration deployment |
| management, chip design and development problem tracking (both |
| pre-and-post fabrication), and software and hardware bug tracking for |
| luminaries such as Redhat, NASA, Linux-Mandrake, and VA Systems. |
| Combined with systems such as |
| <ulink url="http://www.cvshome.org">CVS</ulink>, |
| <ulink url="http://www.mozilla.org/bonsai.html">Bonsai</ulink>, or |
| <ulink url="http://www.perforce.com">Perforce SCM</ulink>, Bugzilla |
| provides a powerful, easy-to-use solution to configuration management and |
| replication problems.</para> |
| |
| <para>Bugzilla can dramatically increase the productivity and |
| accountability of individual employees by providing a documented workflow |
| and positive feedback for good performance. How many times do you wake up |
| in the morning, remembering that you were supposed to do |
| <emphasis>something</emphasis> |
| today, but you just can't quite remember? Put it in Bugzilla, and you |
| have a record of it from which you can extrapolate milestones, predict |
| product versions for integration, and follow the discussion trail |
| that led to critical decisions.</para> |
| |
| <para>Ultimately, Bugzilla puts the power in your hands to improve your |
| value to your employer or business while providing a usable framework for |
| your natural attention to detail and knowledge store to flourish.</para> |
| </section> |
| </chapter> |
| |
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