6 bug reporting tools to speed up development

Here's the best tools that will speed you development speed for your team and delivery projects on time. We've broken down the best work flow and productivity tools in the market for you to choose from

 Even if you spent hours coding and testing your software, it's inevitable that you might find some bugs, its just the way of life. Users need an application that works without any defect (surprise surprise), and with market competition you want you to provide error-free solutions. You can't leave the bugs unchecked. Errors on the application will impact your revenue, reputation, and development team; you need to spend hours fixing the defects and incorporating new features. The robust solution for this problem is adapting the Bug tracking system.

 

Bug Reporting Tools

Defects can be in code, design, and requirements; anything stops the software from functioning. Before the product launch, ensure all the bug are fixed using bug tracking tools. Issue tracking tool helps the web analyst, testers, and developers to track, report, and resolve the errors.

 

Difference between Defect management tools & code review tools

As an ordinary individual, we look at the terms bugs and defects seem to be more or less the same. When the exact word you discuss with the agile team, they will say both are different. Defects are the issues that are happening in the software development code. In contrast, the bugs are on the production Codes (code that others like end users / other coders are utilizing). When choosing the tools, identify the application that meets the goal of tracking bugs and defects.

 

Bug tracking tools are different from code review tools. The code reviews are also known as peer code reviews. Follow programmers to check the code errors with each other. It was a great way to discover bugs. But bug tracking tools are the software applications used to track, report, manage, and assign the bugs to the team for bug fixing. Some of the popular code review tools are Review Board, Crucible, Phabricator, Peer Review for Trac, Veracode, Collaborator, CodeScene, Rhodecode, Reviewable, and more. 

 

Benefits of bug tracking software:

 

1. Deliver High-Quality Products / Better Products

 

Bug tracking solution  helps the agile team track the bugs and ensure that all detected defect fixes before the product launch to the real environment. Bug tracking software will increase customer satisfaction. While running a Nemours project, having a trusted bug taking tool is essential to make a corrective measure promptly. Right test management tools help you to identify and perform in-depth analyses of the bug quickly. 

 

2. Better Communication

Defect tracking apps have inbuilt features like task collaboration, chat, send alerts and notification, and an email option. Bug tracking tool makes the team view the bug page simultaneously and better communication among the group. It proves transparency and accountability among the resources. Product managers can allocate the resource for bug fix and track the bug status on actual time. They can easily collaborate with the team using the software in real-time and make updates and reviews on bugs. It eliminates the lack of communication.

 

3. Improve Return on Investment (ROI) 

 

Tools assist in bug prioritization based on the importance and seriousness. The software will lead the development team to work on the high priority bugs instead of focusing on the low priority bugs. With the software's help, the programmer can easily refer to past errors, reducing development efforts. Usage of tools eliminates unwanted delays in product development and improves productivity. It is a win-win strategy for both the developer and the end-users.

 

4. Identify Bug trends

The software helps to analyze the bug trends. You can quickly identify the average bug reporting, resolved and closer over a time frame (7days or 30 days). You can also track the efficiency of the software team. The source bug tracker can easily refer to the recurring issue on the application. Bug reports provide more insights into the error age, bug status, open and closure, etc. These bug trend reports help in budgeting and resource planning.

 

Bug tracking workflow

The bug reporting tools workflow undergoes the following process steps.

 

Capturing – Catches the bugs and issues.

Recording – Records the issue to judge the bugs by the team.

Accountability – Discovers who is liable for the issue. Reporting tools will help in forwarding defect issues management.

Prioritization – Priorities help the team identify the bugs' seriousness and start working on high priority issues first.

Resolving – The development team fixes the detected bugs.

Reviewing –Cross-check is performed to ensure the errors fixing accuracy.

 

Bug tracking tools essential for any web and software development. These are the vital features that any error tracking software should have: documenting facility, assigning workflow, Bug history, Error Reporting, storage, and retrieval. We shall look at five crucial Bug tracking tools that you can implement on your projects today.

 

 

1. BugReporting

Bug Reporting is a popular tool that shortens the communication gap between QA teams and developers. This is done by streamlining the entire feedback process and integrating into needed project management tools. A large part of project delivery and success comes in maintaining tight loops which is hard with pace. This is where bug reporting really shines

Important Features:
- 1 click install, no code required

- Integrates with popular project management tools like Trello, Asana and Jira
- Collects user meta data to help with recreating bugs
- Auto-notifies customers/QA when a bug is resolved
- Assign tickets to team members
- Video + audio recording
- Snippet and annotation feedback
- Multiple project setup
- Integrate with Slack

System requirements:
- None

 

2. Bugzilla

Bugzilla is an open-source, popular bug reporting tool developed by the Mozilla foundation. Today many organizations use open-source software for bug tracking. This tool helps the tester and engineers to identify all the significant defects in the products.  

 

Users can connect Bugzilla with other testing software like Quality Center, Jira, Testlink, etc. It is written in Perl programming and works on the MYSQL server.

 

Important Features of Bugzilla

  • Advanced search feature
  • Email notifications indicates the changes in code/reports
  • Can view all the change histories 
  • Related bug linking option 
  • Allows attachments 
  • A stable backend framework to store and recover all the information
  • Customize user interface options 
  • Can Include clients in bug prioritizing process 
  • Easy maintenance and software upgrade
  • Detect duplicate bug automatically
  • Anticipate the time a bug fix
  • Generate daily, weekly and monthly reports
  • User can create bug lists in various formats

 

System Requirements Bugzilla

Users can install Bugzilla on any platform like Linux, Windows, and Mac OS. The basic requirements to install Bugzilla include the following.

  1. Perl: To install Bugzilla 4.4 and requires Perl 5.8.1, At the same time, to install Bugzilla 5.0 needs Perl 5.10.1. However, use the improved version like Perl 5.12/ newer versions. 
  2. Database Server: Bugzilla supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, and SQLite Databases. We highly recommend PostgreSQL and MySQL; therefore, we get better support from Bugzilla.
  3. Web server: There is no minimum requirement for a web server. You can use any web server that supports CGI scripts. We recommend you to install Apache. 

 

3. Redmine 

Redmine is a free and open-source bug tracking software like Bugzilla. This tool can be integrated with the Source code management system and supports various platforms. Redmine is a web-based defect tracking system, and you can even use plugins to simplify the installation process. Redmine is a project management software developed with Ruby on Rail framework. 

 

Redmine major features include

  • Flexible Error tracking 
  • Supports multiple platforms & database
  • Support Multi-Language
  • Email notifications
  • Easy files, reports management
  • Calendar & Gantt charts provides visual representation  
  • Provides SCM integration
  • Access control based on the job title 
  • Can handle multiple project simultaneously
  • Create task and subtask to the issues

 

Hardware Requirement to host Redmine 

The minimum hardware requirements to install Redmine. 

  1. Intel Celeron processes, 30-40 Hard Disk Drive, and 1-2 Gb RAM. If you plan for MySqQl, then increase the Dual-core processor's configuration with 6-8 Gb RAM.
  2. You can prefer MySQL or PostgreSQL database server.
  3. Redmine works on various operating systems like Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac OS X. 

 

4. Trac 

 

Trac is a web application that provides the project manager with an enhanced bug tracking feature and Wiki. It is an open-source application developed by Edgewall Software. Trac is simple and easy to utilize. This app comes with multiple platforms like Windows, Linux, Mac Os, and Unix. Bug tracking or error tracking in Trac is called ticketing. 

 

Key Features Of Trac

  • Simple & Customized reporting system
  • Supports multi projects 
  • Email notifications feature
  • Provides Timeline history for all recent activities 
  • Has milestones and road maps 
  • Can easily generate Links
  • Simple Easy integration with the issue page, files, and Wiki.
  • Has multi plugin supports like Forum plugin, Guestbook plugin, Pastebin plugin, etc
  • Allows wiki markups on Bug descriptions

 

Hardware/software requirements for Trac

  1. Python software package, version 2.4 or 3.0
  2. SQLite, ​MySQL ​or PostgreSQL database 
  3. Edgewall's Genshi ( Python toolkit)

 

5.The Bug Genie 

Bug Genies is an excellent tool for issue tracking and project management. Bug Genies is not a free tool, but it provides a free trial for the software. Bug Genies runs on a PHP framework. It works on multiple platforms and databases. With issue filters and custom issue fields, users can quickly locate the errors on the software.

 

Features of Bug Genie

  • Provides customized issue fields
  • More user-friendly tool
  • Can integrate with different SCM
  • Helpful, quick search  
  • With powerful wiki package
  • Bug Genie provides revision and history support 
  • Permits users or developers to comment on the wiki or article page 
  • Automated roadmaps 
  • Issue coloring options 
  • Have instant notifications
  • Easy installation with multi-language support 

Requirements for installing The Bug Genie

For installing Bug Genies, you require the followings

  1. PHP 5.3.10 or latest available PHP version
  2. The Bug Genies supports Apache 2.x, IIS7, and Nginx web server.
  3. MariaDB/ MySQL , MSSQL, PostgreSQL database 

 

 

6.  Mantis

Mantis Bug Tracker (BT) is also an open-source bug reporting software utilized for tracking bugs for various projects. The tool is a web-based bug tracking system with a mobile device view. MantisBt implemented with PHP. The easy installation process with simple steps. 

Salient features of MantisBt 

  • Provides Email notifications 
  • You can control user access 
  • Easily customize Mantis based on your requirements.
  • Mantis supports iPhone, Android, and Windows mobile platforms.
  • Supports plugin, and you can add custom functionalities on the MantisBt 

Hardware/ Software requirements

  1. MantisBT works on operating systems like Windows, macOS, Solaris Linux, and BSDs.
  2. MantisBT mainly works with Microsoft IIS and Apache web server.
  3. MantisBT supports MySQL, PostgreSQL database 
  4. And also provides experimental support for Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server

 

Start your bugs reporting with the most popular tools!

 

We have gone through what are the best bug tracking tools and their benefits. According to the Pareto Principle, 80% of results come from only 20% percent of the action. If you identify and resolve 20 percent of bugs on your products, render 80% stronger production. Before choosing the right tool, it is essential to understand the team size and requirements. I hope the error reporting tools' overviews help you find the best tool for your agile project team.