id summary reporter owner description type status priority component severity resolution keywords cc release 8883 "Improving bug triage using ""user pain"" method" david.bourguignon@… anybody "Bug triage is a difficult process, and a method using ""user pain"" criteria could improve it a lot. This method is described with full details on: http://www.lostgarden.com/2008/05/improving-bug-triage-with-user-pain.html It uses the following inputs for each bug report: * Type (What type of bug is this?) * 7: Crash: Bug causes crash or data loss. Asserts in the Debug release. * 6: Major usability: Impairs usability in key scenarios. * 5: Minor usability: Impairs usability in secondary scenarios. * 4: Balancing: Enables degenerate usage strategies that harm the experience. * 3: Visual and Sound Polish: Aesthetic issues * 2: Localization: * 1: Documentation: A documentation issue * Priority (How will those affected feel about the bug?) * 5: Blocking further progress on the daily build. * 4: A User would return the product. Cannot RTM. The Team would hold the release for this bug. * 3: A User would likely not purchase the product. Will show up in review. Clearly a noticeable issue. * 2: A Pain – users won’t like this once they notice it. A moderate number of users won’t buy. * 1: Nuisance – not a big deal but noticeable. Extremely unlikely to affect sales. * Likelihood (Who will be affected by this bug?) * 5: Will affect all users. * 4: Will affect most users. * 3: Will affect average number of users. * 2: Will only affect a few users. * 1: Will affect almost no one. The basic equation for calculating User Pain is as follows: {{{ User_Pain = (Type * Likelihood * Priority) / Max_Possible_Score }}} User pain is automatically recalculated when a new bug is entered and whenever a bug changes. Implementing it with Trac would basically mean: * Use the three existing scoring fields for tickets to provide for Type, Priority, Likelihood scales. * Create a dynamic ""user pain"" score for each ticket that would be computed each time one enters a new bug in the database (only the ""Max Possible Score"" changes, therefore it shouldn't be too resource intensive). There are at least three benefits to this approach: * Developers always know what to fix. * It promotes shared code ownership. * Bugs that prevent you from shipping don't accumulate. As a conclusion: read this article! This is a treasure trove of great ideas about bug management (and software development in general). I did a summary, but it has great ways to be more subtle: increase pain slightly over time to avoid small bugs to be never fixed, etc. If anyone knows how to develop a plugin for Trac that does this, I will be glad to test it. Thanks in advance for your help! " enhancement new normal Request-a-Hack normal triaging 0.11