What is a Bug Tracker?

Bug tracker – a defect detection and tracking system

A bug tracker is a software development system used to document the life cycle of bugs. As a result, bug tracking describes the structured process from detection, tracking, and monitoring to the elimination of bugs, defects, and other problems. The aim of bug tracking or the use of bug tracking software is to identify, diagnose and eliminate bugs quickly.

What are the advantages of bug tracking?

Working with a bug tracker offers numerous advantages:

• The information collected about a bug can be standardised.
• The administration, typing and grouping of bugs can be simplified in a central system. This includes the use of name, ID, scope, impact, priority, processing state, etc.
• Workflows for processing and eliminating bugs can be defined.
• Archiving and searching for documented bugs can be optimised.
• The estimated and actual effort for bug fixing can be documented.
• The effort for reporting bugs can be reduced. The description of fixed bugs in change logs is also simplified.
• Communication between support, development and users can be improved. Automated notification functions also help here.

Alternatively, bug trackers are also known as trouble ticket systems, defect management tools or issue trackers. However, if you take a closer look, the focus of issue tracking is on issues – and thus, in addition to bugs, also on requirements, feature requests, change requests, suggestions for improvement, ideas, etc.

Bug tracking software

There is a variety of bug tracker software available. Below you will find a list of tools, without claiming completeness and without rating:

• MantisBT
• Jira
• Zoho BugTracker
• zipBoard
• Rollbar
• Axosoft
• Raygun
• Stackify
• Marker.io
• Bird Eats Bug
• Sentry
• devZing
• Airbrake
• TestLodge
• Planio
• uBugtrack
• Sifter
• DoneDone

Of course, the list can easily be extended.