I’ve tried to write this post many times. I’ve tried taking different strategies, from telling a story-based account that led me to an idea, to being blunt and direct about what I was trying to say. I even tried using big words that act as “intelligence flags” for those who don’t understand the message. Though I made three tries, I was satisfied with neither.

Instead of trying to talk around a topic that doesn’t seem to have a whole lot of discussion — nothing that I can divine, anyway — I’m instead going to say it very cheaply.

Given these premises: …

1. Bug reporting systems are communication tools that aide people in talking about software defects, problems, bugs, etc.
2. Bug reporting systems intentionally or unintentionally become huge silos of information that don’t play nice with other software.
3. Bug reporting systems encourage communication that is formal, dry, and sometimes (most of the time?) uninteresting.
4. Bug reporting systems are not people focused.

… And, given this observation: …

1. Bug reports and blog posts are essentially the same technology. They are, at their core, a block of text followed by inline discussion.

… I’ve come to this conclusion:

1. Bug reporting systems are rather old technology, and their creators can learn a lot from the blogging movement.

What if bug reporting systems had trackbacks, for instance? Or a meaningful RSS feed?* Or maybe, “What’s new?” “What’s interesting?” or “What’s the hottest bug that we know of right now?” What if a bug report displayed who was talking about it (e.g., who linked to it) or performed the mundane task of figuring out which bug reports were related (again, who’s linking to it)?. Wouldn’t that make things easier? If there was a better interface — rather than the top of the bucket — that management could peer into, wouldn’t that solidify the role of the testing organization and help management keep track of their software’s status day-to-day?

Isn’t that bug advocacy?

This all stemmed from our use of bug reporting systems at The Open Planning Project. In short: One Big Bug Reporting System is unmanageable given many users and many avenues of input. Eventually, the silo will become too big. Multiple bug reporting systems are unmanageable given software systems that are tightly integrated. Eventually, a single bug will affect each system, and multiple people — whose hands are somewhere within each bug reporting system — will have to respond to it.

I almost hate to say it, but online bug reporting systems are the oldest Web 2.0 applications I know. So why have they fallen so far behind?

* Our system, thankfully, has an RSS feed, though my impression is most bug reporting systems are behind the times.

PS: I could be convinced that all I’m really suggesting is that Y generation testers will start advocating bugs to management through current Web 2.0 technologies, such as blogs. However, I wouldn’t be disappointed if some bug reporting systems learned from the blogging movement, evolved a bit, and became more open to information sharing across a large, interested audience.

My current open-source favorite is Trac. No guarantees, but there may be a new plugin on the horizon.