Issue tracking is one of the most important aspects of software quality assurance. Softwares are becoming more and more advanced every day, so is the hardware on which they are used. So it is very likely that software that is going to run on many different hardware machines can run into issues. Testers make sure to test the software on multiple machines, when they run into some issue, they use an issue tracking system to report and get the issue resolved. So what is an issue tracking system? An issue tracking system is a tool used to identify, document, and resolve various issues during the product’s lifecycle.

Before getting into how issue tracking tools can help with software quality assurance, it is important to understand the stages of issue tracking. Here is a brief detail about the stages of issue tracking:

1- Finding an issue

The first step of issue tracking is to identify all the issues with the product. This can be done using test management tools or through manual testing of the product. A team of testers can test each and every feature of the software product and can identify all the issues. 

2- Reporting an issue

Once the issues are captured by the testers, the next step is to report all the issues. This where the issue management tool comes in. The testers list down all the issues in the trackers and add relevant details for each issue like description, steps to reproduce, etc.

3- Assigning an issue

You need to assign issues to the relevant person who is going to get it resolved. Testers report the issues and product managers can assign them to the relevant member or team. Most of the issue tracking tools used these days have the functionality to add multiple team members or create teams, so it is very easy to quickly assign an issue.

4- Prioritize an issue

Now that we have identified an issue, reported it, and assigned it to the relevant person, the next step is to prioritize an issue. The list of issues can grow to a tremendous amount, so it is very important to prioritize each and every issue that has been assigned. Some of the issues can cause breaking changes, which means that if they are not fixed or maintained on priority, your product may crash and you might end up losing customers. 

5- Resolving an issue

It is now the developer’s responsibility to resolve the assigned issues and update the status as resolved. Test managers need to keep a check on whether the issue has been resolved by the developer within the given time estimate and if not, they need to give them a gentle reminder to resolve it. 

6- Reviewing an issue

The last step of issue tracking is to review the issue once again after it has been marked as resolved by the developer. The tester will test the issue again and check if it is working fine now or not. If the functionality is now working as it should have, the tester will mark the issue as complete.

This was a brief introduction to the steps involved in issue tracking. We will discuss a few benefits of using an issue tracking system and how it can affect your organization’s performance.

Improved Team Efficiency:

Using an issue tracking tool brings in-depth detail to tasks. Without any tool in place, the issues and tasks just float here and there. Issue tracking tools allow teams to manage issues with increased attention to detail. Each person can access the issues from one central location. They can see what issues are at what stage and which needs to be resolved on the highest priority. When one issue has been resolved, the members know precisely what to do next. 

With a detailed history of the issues, you always know what caused the issue and if something remains unresolved. This improves the overall efficiency of the work. 

One-Stop Information Destination:

Instead of digging through emails or trying to remember the information provided about an issue over a call or some sheet, you can simply navigate to the issue and see all the details about the issue in one place. As long as the issues are being titled properly, finding any issue shouldn’t take more than a moment. Most of the companies use naming conventions to differentiate between the issues. For example for all front-end related issues, companies add FE as a prefix and for backend issues, BK as a prefix. This makes it easy to identify the type of issue. You can always use these kinds of conventions to make it even easier to differentiate and access relevant issues using issue management tools. So as long as you are populating the right information about the issue, retrieving it won’t be a problem. The history of issues is also maintained, which can be helpful for new team members if they ever run into somehow similar issues.

Better Collaboration:

As remote and multi-timezones working is becoming more and more common, a collaboration between teams is the primary focus of any software development company. Issue tracking tools make communication easier and quicker. Team members remain connected with an issue tracking tool. Instead of waiting for an email or a call, anyone can access the information right away. Team members can quickly reply to any query that someone has added on an issue. So for better communication and a clear picture of all the issues, the use of an issue tracking tool is a must.

Final thoughts:

An issue tracking tool if used with proper steps and managed properly, can increase the efficiency of an organization drastically. Organizations can deliver products much faster and better. The only important thing to keep in mind is to manage these tools properly, otherwise, it might become a hassle in itself.