Issue tracking nirvana

Like most developers I've experimented with lots of different ways of managing bugs, feature requests, architectural notes and documentation. I always start a new project determined to use a really air tight system for logging bugs and feature requests. I also try to create a central, accessible store for documentation which is searchable and easy for everyone to use. You know what? It never worked.

I used a desktop "help desk" style system that logged absolutely everything but had no simple overview so figuring out what status a ticket was in involved opening it and reading through the history. Discussions were often via email and the help desk system wasn't updated.

I'd get so fed up with spending 30 minutes setting up a ticket in the system that I'd resort to "todo" lists scattered over my desk. I eventually moved on to OneNote and finally Trello for my own time management although the department was officially using the desktop app.

I moved company (after going travelling for a few months) and carried on using OneNote/Trello to do lists. It worked better than the big clunky system before but it still meant that there were things only I knew about and I kept forgetting to update the lists as I had more conversations with people.

Project documentation was stored on a shared drive or (for a while) SharePoint (ARGH). One day it struck me - this shouldn't be so complicated.

All I wanted was to:
  • Have a simple overview of current work
  • Assign work to members of the team or myself
  • Have discussions in the context of the original bug/feature
  • Have an archive of closed/finished work
I moved to work items in TFS/Visual Studio Online. It was nearly right, I guess that for some people it's perfect but for me it was overly complex and I found myself spending more time than I wanted dealing with the management of tasks - I'm a developer, just let me code!

Enter GitHub Issues. Damn. This is one seriously impressive system. I got everything I wanted as well as all the joys of cross referring issues, markdown, milestones, labels and EMOJI.

The thing is our code is still in VSO. Don't get me wrong, we will be moving it at some point but GitHub issues is a completely awesome tool in its own right. It just feels so easy, there is no friction at all.

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