Question

I am a developer with a small company which is about to take on a large project.

We currently use email for issue tracking, and I intend to set up a bug/issue tracking system
(perhaps bug genie, mantis or trac – we want something web based, php, open source, mysql)
We have source control (SVN)

In the past I have found that the biggest problem with bug tracking systems is that information is split between the tracking system and emails.

What do you do to make sure that information in emails is available to people reviewing bugs in your bug tracking software?

What do you do to make it easy for people working on bugs to make information in the emails they send and receive available to the bug tracking system?

In my experiece if it isn’t easy people will avoid doing it.

Answer 1

I don’t use any of the systems you’d consider (no php;-), but, on systems I do use, emails sent in response to any email from the bug tracker go to the bug tracker itself (reply-to header) unless the responder does some very very explicit action to stop that; the bug tracker makes the email’s contents one more comment on the bug, stores attachments as “uploaded files”, and so forth. If none of the trackers you’re considering have this functionality, I suggest you broaden your considerations to trackers that DO have it (whatever language they’re implemented in, is less important than their functionality).

email is just too important, too useful, too widespread; systems such as issue trackers MUST be able to interoperate smoothly with email (incoming and outgoing) to be considered good.