Question

We’ve been having a discussion, where I work, about what type of information should go in the body of a FogBugz case. I’m talking about the large free-text field just under the “Opened by” text when you create a new bug, or when you push Edit on an existing case.

For instance, we all agree that a detailed description of the bug belongs there, and we usually put that description in, when we first create a bug. But in later edits, what types of information can/should be placed in there?

The biggest issue that we don’t all agree on is whether design discussion belongs in there. Something like this:

    FEATURE 714
    Opened by 'Person A'
    We need to provide a user with the ability to quiggle-fy the doodad.

    Edited by 'Person B'
    Do you think this will involve changing the crabbadonk interface as well?

    Edited by 'Person C'
    No, the crabbadonk is already quiggle-fied.

We all agree that what Person A said belongs there, but we’re unsure of whether it makes sense for the conversation between Person B and Person C to be in there as well.

What do other companies do? Is there any generally accepted principles for what kind of information belongs in there? Is there a better place in FogBugz for that? Or is there a separate tool that should be used for it?

Answer 1

For FogBugz, here is what I like to do with my projects:

1. Discussion should go on a discussion board
2. The end design should go in a Wiki
3. The tasks to implement the design should be made cases

This has the advantage of using the various “formats” in the way they work best, and also provides a lot of flexibility. If you need to be able to link back and forth between things, there are plugins already that make this easy, and writing your own isn’t too tough (either as a bugmonkey script or a full plugin.)