Intro to Bug Trackers (Activity)

Revision as of 16:38, 26 January 2016

Background:

Bug tracking systems are a form of change management and organization used by FOSS projects. Bug trackers do far more than simply keep track of bugs. They also are used to hold new feature requests, patches, and some tasks. Bug trackers are also called request trackers, issue trackers, request trackers and ticket systems. Please read the two readings below for a more complete treatment of bug trackers and their use in FOSS projects.

• Karl Fogel's chapter on bug trackers
• Wikipedia's page on Bug Tracking Systems

Directions:

We will begin by looking at a typical Bugzilla instance for a project. We will be using GNOME's Bugzilla instance, but specifically looking at the bugs for the Accessibility Team.

Part 1 - Bug Reports

1. Open a browser and go to the GNOME Accessibility Bugs
2. Define what each of the column names below indicate. Include the range of possible values for 2-7 below. Feel free to explore beyond the page to find more information.
   1. ID
   2. Sev
   3. Pri
   4. OS
   5. Product
   6. Status
   7. Resolution
   8. Summary
3. Describe how you discovered the definitions and how did you find the information from above (hint: the advanced search shows the options or the Reports link has a link)?
4. Identify the order in which the bugs are initially displayed?
5. What is the meaning of the shading of some bug reports?
6. What is the meaning of the colors used when describing a bug (red, gray, black)?
7. Select a bug that you think that you might be able to fix and look at it more closely (click on the bug number).
   1. Identify when the bug was submitted.
   2. Identify if there has been recent discussion about the bug?
   3. Is the bug current?
   4. Is the bug assigned? To whom?
   5. Describe what you would need to do to fix the bug.
8. Repeat the previous step with a different kind of bug.

Part 2 - Collective Reports

1. Click on the “Reports” link on the top of the page.
2. Clickk on the "Summary of Bug Activity for the last week".
3. How many bug reports were opened in the last week? How many were closed?
4. What was the general trend last week? Were more bugs opened than closed or vice versa?
5. Who were the top three bug closers? Why is this important to know?
6. Who were the top three bug reporters? Are these the same as the top three bug closes? What is the overlap in these two lists?
7. Who are the top three contributors of patches?
8. Who are the top three reviewers of patches? What is the overlap between these lists and the bug closers and bug reporters? What is the overlap between patch contributors and patch reviewers?
9. Click on the “Generate Graphical Reports” link.
10. Plot a line graph of the severity of bugs by component for Orca:
    1. Select "Severity" for the vertical axis
    2. Select "Component" for the horizontal axis
    3. Select "Bar Graph" for type of graph
    4. Leave the "Multiple Images" as <none>
    5. Scroll down and select Orca from the Product menu.
    6. Click "Generate Report".
11. What class were the majority of the bugs for braille?
12. What other reports can you generate?

Deliverables:

Wiki posting describing the results of your exploration below.

Assessment:

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Include sample assessment questions/rubrics.

Comments:

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Additional Information:

Suggestions for Open Source Community:

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