International Journal on Future Revolution in Computer Science & Communication Engineering ISSN: 2454-4248

Volume: 3 Issue: 11 403 – 406

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Comparative Analysis of Bugzilla and Tracker Bug Tracking System

Sheetal Uplenchwar Dr. Manimala Puri

Allana Institute of Management Sciences, Jayawant Shikshan Prasarak Mandal, Group of Institutes,
Pune, India Pune, India
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract: No one is perfect in this world. Same goes for software development. It is very difficult to develop the software without any errors or
bugs. For the successful delivery of software project, it is necessary to remove all these error and bugs. Bug tracking system is a process of
finding of bugs, recording of bugs reporting of bugsand last but not the least tracking of all these bugs. Tracking of bug includes, whether the
bug is solved or not, if bug is not solved what steps to be taken for solving the bug.
Many bug tracking tools are available in the market. Some of them are open source while some are proprietary. This study focuses on
comparative analysis of open source bug tracking tool namely Bugzilla and tracker.

Keyword: Bug, Bug tracking system, priority, severity, assignee, issue status
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I. Introduction describes comparison of Bugzilla tool and Tracker tool

Important phases of software development life based on platform characteristics. Section VII
cycle are planning and requirement analysis, defining describescomparative analysis based on support
requirements, Designing the Product Architecture, characteristics of Bugzilla and tracker tool. Section VIII
Building or Developing the Product, Testing the describes conclusion of the study.
Product[1, 2]
All these phases need to be executed carefully. All these II. Literature Review
phases are dependent on each other. Mistakes or error in Afreen Patel and et.al have deployed a project on a web
any one of these phase will cause errors in next phase. In server. This project is used using a web browser. They
some case it may happen that there is misunderstanding made use of online defect tracking throughout the defect
between the system analyst and the customer. This life cycle. The project enables the effective management of
misunderstanding may lead bugs in software. The bug can defects and communication with related members for each
be introduced during any software phase of software project [3]
development life cycle. Every Software developer is V.B. Singh andet.al havereviewed and compared different
trying to contribute towards bug free software. Different bug tracking systems using classification criteria. This
types of bugs are reported daily using software study will help the developer to select the bug tracking tool
configuration management tool. Once the bug is reported, according to requirement and constraint. Theoretical
it is important to work on these bugs and resolved the bug framework is proposed for bug tracking and reliability
as soon as possible. For this purpose, designing of bug assessment system (BTRAS) reporting and tracking. [4]
tracking system is required. Bug tracking system will Thomas Zimmermann and et.al have proposed four
record all the bugs; keep track of bugs, person who is areas for improvement of bug tracking system. These areas
solving the bug etc. include Tool-centric, Information-centric, Process-centric,
and User – centric, Different types of choices are provided
Bug tracking system is important part of
to collect bug related information. [5]
proprietary software, as well as open source software. In
Catherine V and et.al have evaluated seven free and open
proprietary software, dedicated team is assigned for
source defect tracking tools on the basis of database, server
solving the bugs whereas in case of open source software,
and other software required to run them; the effort required
the bug is picked up and solved by any one.
to install, learn and use them; as well as the ability to
The paper is organized into following section. export data from them. Result of the study shows that
Section II describes literature review of the respective Buggit, Bugzilla, Mantis and Bugtrack, are easy to install
study. Section III describes bug tracking system.Section IV and learn. This study then examined the type of data
describes tracker tool for bug tracking system.Section V reported for defects by these tools. Bugzilla provides the
describes Bugzilla bug tracking system. Section VI

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International Journal on Future Revolution in Computer Science & Communication Engineering ISSN: 2454-4248
Volume: 3 Issue: 11 403 – 406
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type of data necessary for applying all three defect 3. Bug type
estimation models discussed. [6] o It includes type of the bug. There are 2 types of bug.
K.Lavanya and et.al have developed defect REPORTING They are standard issue types and all sub task issue
tool. This system acts as an interface between the types.
employees thereby enabling them to forward their issues to o Standard issue type shows whether the bug is related
the centralized report tracking system. Hence, making the to cloud bug or improvement related bug. It includes
work easy for both the issue raiser and the resolver [7] bug, epic, improvement, cloud bug, new feature,
release test, review, story and task.
III. WHAT IS BUG TRACKING SYSTEM o Sub task issue types shows whether the bug is
Bug tracking system provides a way for reporting a functional or technical.
bug.Bug tracking system consists of standard procedure for
reporting and tracking of bugs.This procedure consists of 4. Issue status
number of steps to be followed. o To opened or blocked.
These steps are as follows [8, 9] o In Moodle bug tracking system there are different
 The bug should have relevant title. So title of bug is type of issue status like,
important while reporting bug.  Open- The bug is open for removing the problem.
 The bug report should contain its detailed description.  Reopened – The bug was closed previously but
It includes when the bug occurs, in which part of coding again reopened.
it occurs, exact what bug has occurred, whether it  Development in progress – The bug solving
affects other parts of coding, and how it occurs. If process is going on.
possible also include the set of input, expected output  Waiting for peer review – The bug is solved fully
and the output that has occurred. and it is in queue for review process.
 Mention project version.  Problem during testing – Problem is encountered
 Provide screenshot or attachment with actual error while solving bug.
message. If there is no error message, then provide set  Waiting for integration - The bug needs to be
of input, expected output and the output that has integrated with other component and it is in
occurred. waiting.
 Provide priority for solving bug. Priority may be low,  Waiting for testing – The bug is in queue for
medium or high. testing.
 Try to specify severity of bug. The severity includes 5. Description – Provide complete description of the bug
frequency of occurrence and how it affects execution of occurs, output and expected output.
other parts. 6. Affects version – Current version in which bug occurs.
7. Component – Other component affected due to bug.
 The bug reports also contain status of the bug. It
includes new, opened, confirmed, closed, etc. 8. Security Level – It determines who can be viewer of
the bug. If the security level is very high, then very less
 The person who is reporting the bug.
number of people can view the bug. There are different
 The name of the person who is solving the bug i.e. to
types of security level like minor security issue, serious
whom the bug is assigned.
security issue etc.
 Include the earlier bug report if any.
9. Assigning priority to issue – It determines severity of
the bug. Priority can be major, minor, and critical.
IV. Tracker tool for bug tracking system
o If the priority is critical then it causes crashing of
Tracker tool is used for collecting bugs. Ticket server or loss of data etc.
management concept is used in tracker tool for collection o If the priority is major then it causes function loss
and solving of bugs. Steps used in tracker system are [10] and incorrect output.
1. Ticket Management o If the priority is minor then it will not affect any
o Ticket management includes collecting tickets part of the project. It is possible to work in other
from users. Ticket means collecting bugs from users. parts of the project.
The screen shot below shows reporting of bug in 10. Attachment – It allows user send file as an
Moodle using bug tracking system. attachment to view the bug. It will help the developer to
2. Assignee exactly view the bug.
o Assignee is a person who solves a bug. So he is 11. Close the bug – It includes closing of bug with
actual resolver of the bug. A bug/ ticket can be notification like fixed, not fixed, not a bug, duplicate
solved by an individual person or by a group of uses. etc.
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IJFRCSCE | November 2017, Available @ http://www.ijfrcsce.org
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International Journal on Future Revolution in Computer Science & Communication Engineering ISSN: 2454-4248
Volume: 3 Issue: 11 403 – 406
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V. Bugzilla Bug tracking system Table 2: Comparison of Bugzilla tool and Tracker tool
 It is an open source bug tracking system. based on support characteristics
 It can be used as test management tool also.
 Steps in creating bug report are as follows
[11,12]
o Enter Product in which bug occurs. For e.g. –
project name
o Enter Component of the project in which bug
occurs.
o Give Component description in detail to know
the bug.
o Select project version.
From the table it can be observed that Bugzilla and
o Select severity of the bug.
tracker, they both are supporting all four features. Both of
o Select Hardware
them are supporting Multilanguage support. They have
o Select OS
complete web interface to achieve the task in friendly way.
o Enter Summary
When any new update comes, email can be sent to
o Enter Description
registered users. Even maintenance support is available in
o Attach Attachment
the form of forum communities.
o Submit
VIII. Conclusion
VI. Comparison of Bugzilla tool and Tracker
Researcher has compared two bug tracking tool namely
tool based on platform characteristics
Bugzilla and tracker based on platform and support
The table below shows comparative analysis of
characteristics. Steps are described in reporting and in
Bugzillatool and tracker tool based on software type,
tracking of bug. User can choose the tool according to their
system architecture, operating system, webserver, back
requirement. It is found that both the tools are user-
end, programming language and web browser
friendly, less error prone and powerful in solving bugs.

Table 1: Comparison of Bugzilla tool and Tracker tool

References
based on platform characteristics [1] “Software development life cycle”,
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/sdlc/sdlc_overview.htm,
last accessed on 3rd November 2017.
[2] “Software development life cycle”,
http://softwaretestingfundamentals.com/software-
development-life-cycle/, last accessed on 3rd November
2017.
[3] Afreen Patel, Nitin
PavasiyaChaitaliPatil,Prof.L.J.Sankpal, “Online Defect
Tracking System”, International Journal of Scientific &
Engineering Research, Volume 4, Issue 4, April-2013 PP
– 1861- 1862, ISSN 2229-5518.
[4] V.B. Singh and Krishna Kumar Chaturvedi, “Bug
Tracking and Reliability Assessment System (BTRAS)”,
International Journal of Software Engineering and Its
VII. Comparative analysis based on support Applications, Vol - 5 No. 4, October, 2011, PP – 17 – 23.
characteristics of Bugzilla and tracker tool [5] Thomas Zimmermann, Rahul Premraj, Jonathan Sillito,
The table below shows comparative analysis of Silvia Breu, “Improving Bug Tracking Systems”,
Bugzilla tool and tracker tool based on language support, [6] Catherine V, Stringfellow, DileepPotnuri, “Analysis of
email notification, web interface, and maintenance open source defect tracking tools for use in defect
support. estimation”, PP – 1 – 6.
[7] K.Lavanya, P.Jennifer, “Bug Tracking System Analysis”,
International Journal of Innovative Research in Computer
and Communication Engineering, ISSN(Online): 2320-
9801, Vol. 3, Issue 7, July 2015, PP – 7038 – 7041.

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IJFRCSCE | November 2017, Available @ http://www.ijfrcsce.org
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 International Journal on Future Revolution in Computer Science & Communication Engineering ISSN: 2454-4248
Volume: 3 Issue: 11 403 – 406
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
[8] “How to Write a Good Bug Report? Tips andTricks”,
http://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/how-to-write-good-
bug-report/, last accessed on 14th November 2017.
[9] “Sample bug report”,
www.softwaretestinghelp.com/sample-bug-report/, last
accessed on 14th November 2017.
[10] “Tracker Module”,
https://docs.moodle.org/22/en/Tracker_module, last
accessed on 16th November 2017.
[11] “Bugzilla”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugzilla, last
accessed on 18th November 2017,
[12] “How to use bugzilla tool”,
searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/.../Track-project-
changes-using-the-Bugzilla-bu, last accessed on 18th
November 2017

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