Issue tracking

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If unexpected events occur in the system, customers and other users may report these issues.

Issue tracking involves:

  • Managing issues.
  • Associating issues with efforts to resolve underlying problems in the system.
  • Informing customers of possible resolutions.

Requirements for issue tracking

You can often track issues using a separate system that lets you record and report the details of problems that users report. These details can include:

  • Tasks the user was doing.
  • Symptoms of the problem.
  • Sequence of events.
  • Error or warning messages.

Requirements for data collection

The user who initially reported the issue is considered the primary data source. This user can provide more information, such as:

  • A crash dump, if the application includes a component that runs on the user's desktop.
  • A screenshot.
  • The date and time the error occurred.
  • The user's location.

You can use this information to help debug and create a backlog for future software releases.

Analyze data

Consider the following scenarios when you analyze issue-tracking data:

  • Different users may report the same problem. The issue-tracking system should associate common reports.
  • Record the debugging progress against each issue report.
  • Inform customers of the solution when you've resolved the issue.
  • If a user reports an issue that has a known solution in the issue-tracking system, inform the user of the solution immediately.

Next steps

Tracing and debugging