It is quite unusual to come across a product that is free of flaws.
Every software product, even those developed by extremely experienced developers and vetted by watchful QA teams, has some form of bug creeping through its code.
And when a disconnected process—or, worse, no process—is in place, these flaws may grow fast.
When it comes to QA testing, perfection is, of course, the ultimate aim.
However, lowering the amount of faults inside the system while sticking to tight timelines and lean teams might make this aim appear impossible to achieve.
Fortunately, it is possible.
Your team can stay on schedule while significantly increasing product quality with the aid of defect monitoring tools.
But how can you know which bug reporting tools are best for you?
Should your team look at commercial or open source defect tracking software?
And what features should your team look for in an issue tracker?
This guide was developed to assist you in navigating the process of selecting the best suitable
This article was developed to assist you in navigating the process of selecting the most effective software bug tracking solutions for your organization, from understanding its benefits to examining our suggested defect tracking products list.
What exactly are Software Bug Tracking Tools?
Bug tracking tools are platforms used in QA problem tracking to capture issues that customers or internal users encounter with a software product.
Bug reporting systems enable QA engineers, developers, and customer support agents to monitor application issues from discovery to resolution using a ticketing system.
Both commercial and open source defect tracking technologies efficiently resolve software product concerns for internal teams and provide real-time status information to users.
When utilizing defect tracking software, a QA tester or customer support representative writes a ticket to remedy the discovered fault.
The ticket maker can designate a priority level based on severity to the discovered issue, which can then be readjusted by the development and project management teams based on feasibility, internal resources, and development roadmaps.
Tickets for defect tracking software are closed once the problems have been rectified or cannot be replicated by QA testers or developers.
The Advantages of Bug Tracking Software
Bug reporting tools are intended to help all parties engaged in the development cycle improve the progress of your software program.
Your team may expect to experience these benefits to your QA testing and software development process with an issue tracking system in place, including those mentioned in our defect tracking tools list.
- Stronger Products: Having total insight into all product problems enhances the user experience of your software program.
Defect tracking software, both commercial and open source, is designed to aid in the QA and development process, resulting in fewer product failures and more customer satisfaction.
- Effective Communication: When each team member is focused on their own component of the project, it’s easy to lose sight of the overall goal.
Defect monitoring tools connect teams and keep everyone organized when problems arise through alerts and notifications.
Defect tracking software prevents issues from falling between the cracks by making it simple to address and assign them.
- Increased Return on Investment: Prioritizing what to address first during new product roll outs can be tricky.
Software bug tracking systems act as project managers, directing you to the areas that require immediate attention and the order in which tickets should be addressed.
These technologies are also intended to lower overall development expenses and give productivity statistics to the CEO for effective QA reporting.
- Defect tracking software can highlight patterns and trends across field tickets by keeping an automated record of past issues.
Managers have complete insight into tickets, including how long it took to resolve the issue, who was assigned to it, and the final outcome.
QA and development teams may enhance their internal processes and resource allocation by identifying these tendencies.
Disadvantages of Using Issue Tracking Tools
Issue tracking is a critical component of the software development lifecycle that should not be overlooked.
While enterprises focus expanding software testing efforts to improve quality and ensure speedier releases, their reliance on technologies grows as well.
We have identified many reasons why problem tracking technologies are vital for QA teams and businesses striving to accelerate their delivery process.
As a result, we have neglected to see its disadvantages.
There are a few frequent difficulties that might lead to incorrect issue tracking in a software development lifecycle.
- Inadequate Issue Tracking Procedure
One of the fundamental criteria of issue tracking is that testers should appropriately characterize defects and make them self-explanatory.
When utilizing an issue tracking system, they must fill out all of the needed data in order to communicate issues with developers.
If a bug is not correctly reported and a few needed fields are missing, such as an inaccurate defect title, an error from the log file, and so on, the defect life cycle process might be disrupted.
- Using Various Issue Tracking Templates
When various issue tracking templates are used by different QA team members to record bugs in an application, it might lead to inconsistencies later on.
This is one of the main reasons why a common bug tracking template should be utilized, since it aids in report development and keeps all stakeholders on the same page.
- There is no control over the testing environment.
Frequently, testers have little control over their test environment and are unaware of what is released in the current version.
Furthermore, development teams make informal modifications in the test environment that address or introduce new issues that testers are unaware of.
Because they do not have total control over the test environment, retesting and regression testing occur, affecting the quality of a software product.
- Improper Defect Triage Process
A bug triage method enables team members to discuss issues and take appropriate action.
These sessions are attended by developers, managers, and testers.
These stakeholders convene in a virtual or real conference to assess all flaws in the app and make critical decisions.
The team members should all have a common awareness of these flaws.
Without doing so, it is impossible to identify why obstacles occur during test execution.
Primary Characteristics
Defect tracking tools are often either free or low-cost.
Most provide a basic Web interface, with some additionally including an email option for convenient bug report reporting.
There are two methods for reporting flaws.
Some systems solely allow for internal reporting, but others feature a public interface via which any user may report a defect.
The system is designed to address the software’s whole lifespan and any identified problems.
An authorized administrator can handle the defects themselves, indicating the status of a bug report to signify that it is being rectified or has been fixed.
Bug tracking is also highly effective as a release management tool since it may give valuable insight into product development, additional needs, and user feedback.
Defect tracking software can be integrated with revision control software.
What characteristics must a good Defect Tracking Tool have?
- It must feature a reporting capability, which implies that a tester should be able to register a problem with all further data such as its environment, severity, attachments, and so on.
- Assigning – It must contain a feature that allows you to assign the bug to the appropriate person in order for it to be fixed. It can also be tracked by the tester.
- Tracking multiple phases of a bug’s life cycle — Once logged, an issue goes through many stages. An ideal defect tracking tool should include several phases with clear descriptions of what each step means.
- Maintaining Logs — A good defect tracking platform should be able to keep track of many items such as user comments, changes to the problem description, and so on.
- Providing a unique id — Each bug reported using this must be granted a unique id automatically. This one-of-a-kind id would be used to monitor bug information and so forth.
Features to Consider When Choosing a Bug Tracking Tool
Before diving into our list of defect tracking tools, you’ll need to figure out what features your team will need to get the most out of your defect tracking software.
We recommend going over these software bug tracking tool factors so you know what features to look for in an issue tracking platform.
- Commercial vs. Open Source: The price difference between commercial and open source solutions is the most evident disparity.
Commercial defect tracking solutions have a closed source code and require a paid license to use the product, whereas open source defect tracking tools are free and have an open source code that is accessible to anybody.
If you’re new to issue tracking, we recommend starting with an open source solution and working your way up to a commercial solution with more features and flexibility.
- Scalability: Managing efficiency is the name of the game, and defect monitoring software is built to help you do just that.
Project leads may better manage resources and boost productivity on lean internal resources if they have complete insight throughout development cycles.
As your organization increases in size and project complexity, be sure the tool you select can keep up.
- Reporting Capabilities: If you can track the correct sort of data, statistical insights into your bug reporting process can boost your team’s productivity and improve product quality.
Examine each tool’s reporting capabilities to check if it can automatically create extensive reports and give insight on test case success, trend detection, resource allocation, and team efficiency.
Check to see whether each tool can customize dashboards so that important data is constantly visible throughout the project.
Impact On Product Life Cycle
Flaw tracking software is used in manufacturing for return merchandise authorizations, where the customer reports a defect in the item, files a report, and receives a shipping tag to return the damaged item and receive a replacement. (Several internet point-of-sale sites, such as Amazon, employ this to manage consumer returns.)
The goal of defect tracking systems is to maintain a chain of accountability from the moment an issue is identified to the moment it is corrected.
They allow the end user to see the status of their problem, managers of staffers dealing with the problem to see what’s going on, who’s assigned to the problem, and if more help is required, and people working on new product development to get a statistical database of what kinds of problems a product is having; this can weed out manufacturing problem defects, or sometimes lead to entire new product categories, as a significant number of customers use a product.
Expected Characteristics of Defect Tracking Tools
Today’s defect tracking technologies are increasingly adapting to the shifting needs of a worldwide economy.
Vendors, for example, are aware that businesses are growing increasingly tired of having to adapt their development processes to accommodate their development applications, and these solution providers are releasing end-to-end solutions that allow you to more easily configure the application to do what you want it to do.
The following are some of the major industry solution trends in defect monitoring tools:
- Some of the world’s largest development teams are actively putting issue tracking and defect management solutions to the test.
- Web-based user interfaces that make it easier to keep a company’s development process running smoothly, whether their staff is in the same room or scattered around the world.
- Full integration with version control, allowing developers to see exactly what code was modified to correct an issue or add an enhancement. This gives you control over the modifications.
- Traceability characteristics enable businesses to have simple access to a bug’s life cycle, making root-cause investigation easier, more time-efficient, and less expensive.
Top 5 Best Defect Tracking Tools
#1. BugHerd
BugHerd makes it simple for anybody, from skilled QA testers to non-technical stakeholders, to test websites.
To help you organize your workflow, bookmark your web pages and keep all mistakes and comments in one place.
With a simple point and click, you may report issues on the site and rectify the mistake / problem / defect reported on the page element of your website.
BugHerd records images, videos, and data such as screen resolution, browser, operating system, CSS selector data, and more.
Everything your team requires to resolve the discovered issue.
All issues / bugs are grouped on a Kanban-style task board where your team may remark, manage, and allocate any work in the team without the use of any other software.
BugHerd interfaces with Slack, WordPress, GitHub, Integromat, and 1500 more services via Zapier’s premium subscription.
BugHerd starts at $ 39 per month and offers a free 14-day trial.
#2. Jira
JIRA, particularly as an incident management solution, is commonly used for bug tracking.
For your convenience, it includes a comprehensive collection of logs, reports, workflow, and other relevant features.
This is a tool that works directly with the code development environment, making it ideal for coders.
Furthermore, because of its capacity to track all types of problems, it is not limited to the software development business and is highly beneficial for help desks, vacation management systems, and so on.
It also helps with agile initiatives.
This is a commercially licensed product with several add-ons that allow for growth.
JIRA offers a 7-day free trial.
#3. Redmine
Redmine is a free and open source problem tracking system that connects with source management systems.
Although it is not a “debugging” tool, it does deal with issues with characteristics, tasks, faults, and so on.
It is a web application that runs on a variety of platforms, however Ruby is required.
#4. ClearQuest
ClearQuest is a client-server web application.
It facilitates bug management techniques and, as an optional feature, integrates with other automation systems.
It also has a robust and customized defect tracking system.
It is a commercial product, therefore it may appear to be quite pricey.
You may use it for free for the first 30 days.
#5. Zoho Bug Tracker
Zoho Bug Tracker is a component of the Zoho project management software.
An online platform for creating projects, milestones, tasks, mistakes, reports, and documents, among other things.
The Big Tracker module itself has all of the standard capabilities.
The product is for sale, however it is not very pricey.
You may also test it for free for a limited period to determine whether it meets your requirements.
Conclusion
A defect management system consists of a set of defect management tools and a defect management procedure.
Furthermore, the organizational culture in which a defect management system functions has an impact on its efficacy.
In most cases, it makes sense to use tools and procedures that prioritize the speed with which faults are identified, tracked, and resolved.
This lays the groundwork for identifying fundamental causes and creating process changes.
If the team or organization’s culture views defects as undesirable, employees will spend more effort attempting to avoid them and will be less inclined to disclose them when they occur.
As a result, certain problems may be discovered later in the process, when they are more difficult and costly to correct.