Apart from managing and prioritizing bugs, bug tracking software also allows an organization to manage its resources effectively, saving a software company time and money. A typical bug tracking software acts as a resource management system that allows a company to utilize its resources to the maximum, without having to spend time and money on additional management.
To understand how bug tracking software helps a company manage resources, let's assume that a new software is in beta testing. Large software can have hundreds of bugs reported to the software team on a daily basis. Bug tracking software automatically categorizes all bugs based on their 'criticality'. In essence, a bug tracking software simplifies the management's task by automatically letting the software team know which bugs are critical and which bugs are minor and can be fixed at a later time. Bug tracking software also carries out another vital task; it automatically detects which bugs have already been reported. During beta testing, common bugs are reported by more than one tester and bug tracking software automatically ignores bugs that have already been reported and are being fixed.
Without bug tracking software, it would require a MIS (Management Information Systems) team to track all reported bugs, categorize them and also keep tabs of which bugs have already been reported and which ones are new. Bug tracking software effectively eliminates the need for a dedicated MIS team allowing a software company to invest more money in development or testing.
Another vital task carried out by bug tracking software is facilitating smooth communication between testers and software developers. In fact, modern day error reporting systems are so advanced that they do not require any user input at all while reporting bugs. All a user has to do is click on a button and the technical details of the bug are reported to an online bug tracking software that automatically categorizes and catalogues the bug for further action. Once again, it is much cheaper to automate the error reporting process; the alternative will mean hiring a customer response team which will report all bugs to the software development team manually. A good example of an automated error reporting and bug tracking system is Microsoft's WER (Windows Error Reporting) system.
Apart from the functions mentioned above, bug tracking software is a great management tool. A manager can easily assign bugs to software developers and can then track the progress of assigned tasks through the bug tracking software. Bug tracking software eliminates the need for a complex hierarchy and allows a single manager to manage a large software team without any additional expenses on team leaders etc. In fact, many software companies customize their bug tracking software such that there is no need for any additional management software at all; this saves a software company money in terms of buying expensive software, but also saves time and additional management.
In conclusion, bug tracking software is a great investment for medium and large software companies that want to better manage their manpower and create quality software.
