Re: [eclipse-dev] Re: [platform-ui-dev] Correct usage of bug priorities

[Tim Ellison <Tim_Ellison@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I agree with the comments below, and suggest it may be worth modifying the 
enter_bug template to clarify the field definitions.  IMHO the template in 
use by the Bugzilla system itself is a good example ( 
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=Bugzilla )  Ok, well 
maybe the STOP sign is a bit over the top!

> 5. Nobody other than the bug owner should ever modify the priority 
field. 

If people are not playing nicely, this can trivially be enforced through 
minor modifications to Bugzilla as described here ( 
http://www.bugzilla.org/docs/html/cust-change-permissions.html )

Regards,
Tim



Jeff McAffer <Jeff_McAffer@xxxxxxxxxx> 
Sent by: eclipse-dev-admin@xxxxxxxxxxx
06/05/2004 01:51
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[eclipse-dev] Re: [platform-ui-dev] Correct usage of bug priorities







Here here! 

The Eclipse team greatly appreciates the time and effort that the 
community puts into tracking down and reporting bugs.  We would not be 
where we are today without that input.  We also appreciate that our users 
have come to depend on Eclipse for important parts of their lives (whether 
it be work or fun or both). 

However, as we approach the end of the 3.0 cycle the team needs to be able 
to identify and focus on the critical issues.  As Stefan points out, 
overstating bug severity is a major (no pun intended) inhibitor in that 
process.  Once a bug has been analyzed, the *Eclipse Team* assigns a 
priority given the other problems and our workloads.  Please do NOT change 
priority of a bug.  This is how we manage our work. 

I would also ask that you followup on your bugs.  If you found more 
information, were asked for more information, found that it was 
user/configuration error, etc etc.  letting us know can save alot of time 
that can then be spent improving other areas. 

Finally, don't be afraid of marking a report as an Enhancement.  This does 
not mean it gets ignored.  There are many polish items and minor 
annoyances which take little time to address and we appreciate knowing 
about them.  These can add substantially to the quality of the end result. 


Thanks 
Jeff 




Stefan Xenos/Ottawa/IBM@IBMCA 
Sent by: platform-ui-dev-admin@xxxxxxxxxxx 
05/05/2004 08:25 PM 

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[platform-ui-dev] Correct usage of bug priorities









I'd like to direct everyone's attention to the following URL: 

https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/bug_status.html#bug_severity 

Currently, too many bugs are being misclassified with a severity of 
"major" or higher. This noise is starting to make it hard to locate the 
really urgent bugs, and some real biggies are sometimes going unnoticed. 


I would like to suggest the following guidelines: 
1. If classifying a bug as "blocker", the bug must indicate what it blocks 
(ie: which product, feature, or Eclipse milestone is being delayed until 
the bug is resolved) 
2. In order to be classified as "critical", a bug must cause Eclipse to 
crash, delete user data, or report a memory leak which is severe enough to 
cause Eclipse to become unusable. 
3. To be classified as "major", there must be some important piece of 
functionality that is unusable (with no workaround). The existence of a 
workaround means that the bug cannot be major. 
4. All cosmetic problems are "trivial", no matter how ugly. 
5. Nobody other than the bug owner should ever modify the priority field. 
6. If someone has removed themself from the CC list or the Assigned To 
field, they don't want to be there. 
7. Don't be rude 


I believe we need some sort of minimal policing of the bugzilla system in 
order to reduce its abuse. The guidelines above should probably be 
displayed every time a new bug is entered along with a warning like: 
"Failure to follow these rules will result in deletion of your bugzilla 
account". The threat of repercussions would probably be enough to 
eliminate most of the abuse, even if no accounts were ever deleted. 

 - Stefan