Would you use VersionOne also as issue-tracking system (aka BugZilla)

Question

Hello,

Within our Agile / Scrum team there is the idea to start using VersionOne as the project planning tool. My question is, can it also handle the issues (defects; new feature requests; improvements; patches) that come in? Meaning can it also replace a issue-tracking system like BugZilla? In a issue tracking system, many people (developers but also customers (/customer support)) typically enter issues. Then these issues go through a work flow cycle (new; in-progress; solved; closed, etc). Also the affects version and fix version (multiple - branches).

Can this be done in VersionOne, out off the box? Or would some customisation be needed? Or would you recommend to keep an other issue tracking system in the background (like BugZilla, Trac, Jira, etc)?

Looking forward to read the experiences of others.

Regards, Tjeerd

Answer 1

Yes, VersionOne has these features.

I can't tell you what it looks like out of the box because I use a centrally managed VersionOne server. My guess is that it's a fairly standard implementation.

VersionOne is a very powerful tool but it takes a certain amount of administration to set teams and iterations up properly. If you're a small team, it might do more than you need, and like most software tools it can slow down the planning and review processes.

It's a reasonable defect tracking system, however I find its search facilities a bit clunky.

A number of StackOverflow users have highly recommended it. If you are planning a remote, corporate level implementation, then I strongly recommend that you run some realistic benchmarks (but this is only good practice, right?) to ensure that your remote users will receive an acceptable level of service. If it's a local server for a small number of teams then I wouldn't expect any problems.

By the way, have you considered FogBugz? It has a very nice user experience and integrates well with other systems.

Answer 2

I think VersionOne is quite a nice system, which was high on our list when evaluating systems for our organisation. However, we chose to implement VisionProject instead, much because its broad functionality. It is extremely good for Project Management, Bug tracking and HelpDesk. So, we exchanged 3 of the systems we had, for IT HelpDesk/customer support, Bug tracking and Project Management to VisionProject. As it looks now, we are also going to remove the document management system and use the document management module in VisionProject instead. I find it very beneficial to have all information in the same system. It is also very good to have the users used to one UI.