Which issue trackers support sub-tickets, and how well do they work for bridging the gap between project managers and developers? [closed]

Answer 1

JIRA

Answer 2

There is a lengthy discussion about bug trackers here.

I like Mantis, myself.

Answer 3

Bugzilla has the notion of dependent bugs, which isn't exactly the sub-task paradigm you are looking for, but can be viewed as close. Unfortunately, the interface for this is quite clunky, as is the rest of the Bugzilla interface, but it does get the job done.

On the positive side, the relationships among bugs can be presented as a graph as well as a fairly easy-to-traverse tree structure to allow for exploring related issues. Additionally, as sub-issues are completed or change, those changes get percolated up the dependency tree so that those responsible for the higher-level tasks are easily notified that things they may have been waiting on are completed.

Answer 4

Tele-Support HelpDesk has a very good and easy to use bug tracking system that also has the benefit of exposing it to the support department to link customers to the issues and then notify the customers when the issues are complete. I live in it daily, and have found the workflow to be extremely productive. Management always knows whats currently in progress, what was just fixed, and what issues are hot (and even how long something should take to get fixed).

It has a very good customizable priority system. Each issue can have a category and product assigned to it and at a button click will be organized to that list. There is a quick filter option, and the ability to do even finer filtering. With estimated time to completion it auto calcs total completion on the fly based on what is currently visible in the list.

our Typical Workflow: Bugs are entered into the system by the support staff/QA Staff. Management reviews the list of "new" bugs and sets the priority they would want them done in. Development staff looks at priority list and sets estimated effort levels. Management reviews and adjusts priority. Development completes issues. QA verifies completed issues and notifies customer upon successful update posting.

At all stages, any one in the staff can look at the list and see what the current status is, and even add notes or attach another customer to the problem. There are fields for release version, which we use with a custom filter / report to auto generate our release notes. (screen shot of open known issue: which is the bug tracking portion of the product).

Answer 5

You want version 7 of Fogbugz. This support multi-levels of hierachy and shows it in a treeview.

Answer 6

Well, we've used TestTrack for years now, which supports hierarchical linking between items. It's project management UI is nothing to write home about however.

It seems as though you're looking for something more like @Task, where you create a project plan using a system similar to Microsoft Project, with future tasks depending on previous tasks, etc. The UI is pretty slick, but when you get to the bug tracker you're pretty much back in "glorified spreadsheet" mode - i don't get the impression this was really designed by or for programmers. Still, might be worth a look if you're really serious about needing this.

IMHO, the problem with adding a hierarchy to your tracking system is that issues do not naturally have a hierarchy when they're added; someone in QA finds a regression, or a user calls in from the field, and an issue gets created. Until at least some research is done into the root cause of the problem, the issue is stand-alone, and chances are, it'll be stand-alone until it's fixed unless it's identified as dependent on some larger project... for which there is likely already some sort of a project management system in place.