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Everything’s a bug (or an issue)

SoftTalker

Loved Bugzilla back in the '00s. Used it just as the author described: everything was a bug. New features, enhancements, actual bugs/problems. Worked very well.

I would differ from the author on the need for tight coupling to source control. There could be any number of folks who want to see what's going on with an item but have no interest in or even understanding of the actual related code. It's easy enough to include a bug number in commit messages to tie the two together.

teeray

> Error establishing a database connection

Simply poetry

0atman

I believe the principles the article author is looking for are core to Pivotal Tracker. I've often tried to persuade teams to use Tracker, but everyone sure loves the whiteboard metaphor!

queezey

Unfortunately, Pivotal Tracker was decommissioned on April 30, 2025. It's dead and gone.

Related HackerNews discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41591622

codydkdc

If I'm understanding correctly GitHub Projects solve your concerns with using GitHub Issues

scotty79

With popularity of myriad of development methodologies there was DDD, Debug Driven Development. You start a project by filing the first bug: "The app shouldn't be blank."

bdhcuidbebe

How would you debug that, tho?

cratermoon

I like that the author distinguishes priority and severity, something rarely appreciated in my experience. Many teams conflate them, spending time working on severe bugs simply because they are severe, when there are important and essential fixes in the queue for the next release.

jes5199

“badly broken but doesn’t matter”?

sixtram

A totally broken function that a single person uses once a month to save five minutes isn't nearly as valuable as a well-designed feature that 5,000 users rely on daily to save just one minute each session.

djeastm

In my experience it depends on who the single person is in the pecking order.