How important is a bug tracking tool for a lone developer, and which one along with a VCS should I look at? [closed]

Answer 1

If you develop on your laptop, you probably work offline often (I do). Consider using bug tracker which doesn't require internet connection to operate. You may check Artifacts - simple, works offline and has Visual Studio integration.

Answer 2

It is mentioned that he has an msdn subscription. Although it's not my favorite version control system to use, Sourcesafe is very easy to set up and use, and not a bad solution if he is the only one using it (which it sounds like).

And yes, you want to use something to track bugs, even if it's just a simple list in Excel (or ) so you can keep track of what's still broke and what is fixed. I've done that before on small projects I have worked on.

Answer 3

Subversion and Trac don't take up very much of your system resources especially when they're just sitting there waiting for you to use them.

I'm working on a small project, just 2 full-time developers, but I find I use our bug tracking software (Jira in our case, similar to Bugzilla), even just to keep track of my own bugs and issues. Easier than trying to remember the details of a bug when you get time to work on it later, and there's a very satisfying feeling to checking off issues after you've resolved them.

I'd stick with something simple in your case, even just a dedicated to-do task list in Outlook would probably suffice if you don't want to spend too much development time setting up a dedicated system. The important thing is to have a way to know for sure you've solved all of the bugs that were reported.

Answer 4

You might want to consider an online repository and/or tracker/planner in addition to your local one. It's another stage of risk management and if, in the future, someone else joins your team, you can scale up just by granting them access.

Some options:

Source Control (Online):

• Assembla - Public source is free, private repositories are paid
• Source Forge - Open source only
• Google Code - Open source only
• Git Hub - Public source is free, private repositories are paid
• Bit Bucket - Unlimited private repos with up to 5 contributors, or 8 if you invite friends

Bug Tracking/Project Management

• LightHouse - Unlimited open source, paid private projects
• FogBugz - Full version is free for up to two developers
• BaseCamp - Paid only
• Trac - Not hosted (although Assembla hosts it), open source - Python
• Bugzilla - Not hosted, open source - Perl
• Mantis - Not hosted, open source - PHP

Answer 5

I would agree with JPunyon that you should use Fogbugz for bug tracking. I use if for my personal stuff and it is brilliant. While a bug tracker is not essential (though useful) if you are on your own, Source Code Control is essential. My product of choice is now Perforce which provides a fully functional 2 user copy you can download and use. It takes up very little resource and is easily tranferable when you upgrade machines. Theres a bit of a learning curve, but its worth it.

Answer 6

The real value of a bug tracker is that you don't lose track of anything that needs to be fixed. This is probably more important if there is only one of you as if there are more because there is no one else to remind you of what you have forgotten. I can remeber a project in the past where we had a simple typo type bug and only one application developer (I was the db developer) and he didn't have time to do it the day the CEO brought it up and a couple of months later when the CEO noticed it was still there he went ballistic. When you are juggling a whole bunch of tasks and possible bugs, it is very easy to lose sight of something (especially something you think of as trivial). That incident resulted in us getting a bug tracker and putting all tasks not just bugs into it and it was one of the best things we ever did. Just being able to say to the client when he wants something new, "Well here is my current list of tasks. How important is it compared to these things?" makes it worth its weight in gold especially when you are the only person. It will help you develop time estimates to and give you a place to document discussions and decisions concerning the task so no one can come back later and say they didn't know you were going to do that.