[Opensim-dev] Fwd: mantis resolved vs. closed

[James Stallings II]

Sorry Mike, this was intended to go to the list, not to your personal email
account :)

Cheers,
James

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: James Stallings II <james.stallings at gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 6:20 AM
Subject: Re: [Opensim-dev] mantis resolved vs. closed
To: Mike Mazur <mmazur at gmail.com>


Good morning

I'll take these from the top :)

On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 12:02 AM, Mike Mazur <mmazur at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> On Tue, 27 Jan 2009 10:47:14 -0600
> James Stallings II <james.stallings at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > suppose instead of setting the ticket to 'resolved' and closing it,
> > we set it to 'resolution pending test' and leave it open
>
> I don't think there's enough difference between "resolved" and
> "resolution pending test". Also I don't think we need to complicate
> our workflow any more for a couple reasons:
>
> First, we don't have a dedicated QA team that will go through all
> "resolution pending test" tickets and verify them, and apparently the
> originals submitters don't care enough most of the time either.


On the contrary - we do have a fairly dedicated team of people sheparding
mantis. I'm one of them. I spend a fair time each month first testing and
then closing old or ancient mantii. Granted, it's been a month or two since
I've done this; new job has been a bit demanding in terms of time and
attention.

The problem is that 'Resolved' implies a certain degree of finality: 'I've
submitted a patch, your issue is fixed, goodbye' is the message I get when I
see a patch submitted and a ticket placed in 'Resolved' status. 'Resolved
Pending Test' or 'Resolved Pending Feedback' says to me, 'I have made a
patch for your issue which i think addresses the problem and the ball is now
in your court'.

>
>
> Second, what's so difficult with re-opening an issue that's been
> resolved if the problem is not fixed? Since most of the time the
> problem *is* fixed, why add this extra policy overhead for the few
> cases where it isn't fixed?


I beg to differ here; the issue addressed by any given patch tends to remain
problematic after the patch about as often as not; if not in the original
incarnation, then in some related fashion. If most patches represented a
fix, we wouldn't need mantis at all, I think.

>
> Third, if your issue was "resolved" by a developer who submitted a
> patch, or *gasp* even "closed" (if it was Justin, perhaps) without the
> issue being fixed, it's not the end of the world. Don't take it
> personally. Give the developer the benefit of the doubt, and ask
> yourself why the developer felt the issue was fixed. Maybe the
> description of the bug was inadequate? Maybe a better test case or
> clearer steps to reproduce, expected and actual results would help
> everyone understand the issue better? After reviewing the information
> in the bug and the proposed fix, you can provide constructive comments
> when you reopen the issue.


I understand it isnt the end of the world, and I dunno what Justin has to do
with this LOL but:

We have a feature-rich trouble ticketing system that is capable of tracking
an issue with a full set of supporting notes and workflow states through the
process of resolution. Unfortunately, we are throwing this functionality out
because of a perception that no one follows up on the bug reports. If we
aren't going to use the mantis software to track isues, work-in-progress,
and solutions, why have it at all?

I do in fact test features; I provide the most accurate data surrounding
tests as I possibly can; and I do follow up on my tickets as best I can,
given the other demands of life and work. As it occurs, I was engaged in
just such a process with idb when I returned to the mantis to engage in the
next stage of the process to find the ticket closed/resolved. It was a bit
like finding a door closed in my face.

All I'm really asking is that we use terms that more accurately describe the
state of the issue and reserve the closed disposition sufficiently to allow
testing of the patch.

Otherwise we might as well ditch mantis and keep a list of active issues on
the wiki.

Cheers
James

>
>
> Thanks,
> Mike
>



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-- 
===================================
http://osgrid.org
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http://twitter.com/jstallings2
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/5/770/a49
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