Advanced Features
This chapter discusses some of the advanced features that are available in some of the Bug and Issue Tracking Software.
Rules
Sometimes a user or an administrator needs to be notified if certain events occur in a Web Bug Tracker. The ability to handle rules may be important for notification of these events or if an issue reaches a critical state. Some of the things to consider in this area are:
- Can more than one rule be created? For example, you may want to send an email to the COO if there is a high priority issue, and want to send an email to the manager whenever a new issue is entered.
- How configurable are the rules? Rules are usually specified as an "if condition" and a "then condition." For example, a rule could be "if an Issue is assigned to somebody, then send an email to that person." Evaluators should consider many such scenarios and see if the system can specify rules to satisfy this conditions.
Extranet Input form
Companies may want to empower their clients and partners to enter issues over the web. These users may not be the real licensee of the Issue Tracking Software, and they may not have access to all the advanced features. Some of the things to consider here are:
- Can a web-based form be created that will allow company customers to enter issues without having to buy a license for each such user?
- Can the system hide specific fields from the customers when they enter information via web-form?
- Can this web-form be branded with the company logo and theme?
- Is there any way that the customer who enters the issues on web-form can check the status of the issues they entered at a later time?
- Is there any simple user-interface in the system to create such a web-form?
Publishing Knowledge Base or FAQ
Issues entered over a period can be used as an educational tool for the employees and customers alike. For example, a company can publish the possible defects and solutions on parts and have the mechanics look at it on a searchable knowledge base to solve similar problems. Some of the points to consider selecting Issue Tracking Software here are:
- Can the system output select issues to create a knowledge base?
- Can these issues be categorized so that the user can search by category and subcategory?
- Can full-text search be performed on the issues in the knowledge base?
- Can some fields be hidden in the knowledge base? For example, a company may not want to show the cost of a part of its knowledge base.