Comment On Troubling Trouble Ticketing

grep -i "fr1st"

Stuff like JIRA isn't that expensive, you know.

Why did no one pull the plug on this after about a month and install one of the many fully working, decent, free off-the-shelf systems?

Or do you work in one of these "Buy it or re-invent it here - Open Source is BAD, mmkay?" shops?

The TRWTF is expecting PHP and MySQL to replace post it notes.

The real The TRWTF is expecting PHP and structured MySQL query language to replace post-it PIN notes.

You would be a perfect candidate for something like Salesforce.


Salesforce is fully customizable and your ticketing system can be built within a month, if you get the right developer on the job.

We are here to help you.

It is bad practise not to be handling cat exeptions.

Severity One:

Stuff like JIRA isn't that expensive, you know.

Hell, you can get Mantis or Bugzilla for free. The GUI will make your face melt, but it's got to be better than emails post-it notes.

Salesforce? Month to configure?

*snigger*

I feel for you corporate boys, I really do.

How about Zentrack, Bugzilla or a million other free apps you could configure in house in a day or two? Well, 10 mins installing, a day or two playing, learning and training your staff...

TRWTF is using a language that doesn't support closures or local variabl... hmm, hang on...

TRWFT is using Javascript

It had countless odd bugs like forms disappearing, lists not populating correctly, edits not actually saving, and so on.

But on the bright side, they could use the same system to report problems with itself!

That's a win-win in my book.

Fristl

Akismeta
Akismetb
Akismetc

At my last job, it took them a lot longer than a month to configure Salesforce. And they hired a consultant to do it, too.

DOA:

Severity One:

Stuff like JIRA isn't that expensive, you know.

Hell, you can get Mantis or Bugzilla for free. The GUI will make your face melt, but it's got to be better than emails post-it notes.

As I said, stuff like JIRA isn't as expensive as having to set up one of these supposedly 'free' ticketing systems that take an inordinate amount of time to set up properly. Unless your company is the IT equivalent of Liechtenstein (but without the banks), a couple of hundreds [insert favourite currency here] should not be a problem.

Bert:

The real The TRWTF

I like where this is going!

fristaa

We use RT here.

WC:

At my last job, it took them a lot longer than a month to configure Salesforce. And they hired a consultant to do it, too.

Perhaps the latter was the reason for the first?

Step 1: Create a bug ticketing system that doesn't work at all (doesn't actually submit any tickets)
Step 2: Tell everybody if they have any problems with the system - submit a ticket on the system
Step 3: Claim the system is working perfectly since you have no outstanding tickets
Step 4: ????
Step 5: Profit!

Tim:

TRWTF is using a language that doesn't support closures or local variabl... hmm, hang on...

TRWFT is using Javascript

You do know that Javascript supports both, right?

AP2:

Tim:

TRWTF is using a language that doesn't support closures or local variabl... hmm, hang on...

TRWFT is using Javascript

You do know that Javascript supports both, right?

+1

1: The cornerstone of maintaining anything is to have a ticketing system to track the issues, and a data repository to store fixes and files in. Failure to do this is a WTF and leads to many WTF's, problems that aren't tracked, etc.

2: If you're afraid of management backstabbing you for doing #1, or worse, accounting getting involved and trying to quantify your job, either management needs replaced, or you're truely useless.

3: The above is an example of useless management; 8 months FT work to reinvent the wheel? 10 seconds of thinking would've solved this FSS.

Anon:

It had countless odd bugs like forms disappearing, lists not populating correctly, edits not actually saving, and so on.

But on the bright side, they could use the same system to report problems with itself!

That's a win-win in my book.

What's the point of flooding the database?

ReadyDesk is a flat $200 purchase. Bugzilla is free. Either one can be configured by a semi-competent developer in at most a few weeks.

Severity One:

DOA:

Severity One:

Stuff like JIRA isn't that expensive, you know.

Hell, you can get Mantis or Bugzilla for free. The GUI will make your face melt, but it's got to be better than emails post-it notes.

As I said, stuff like JIRA isn't as expensive as having to set up one of these supposedly 'free' ticketing systems that take an inordinate amount of time to set up properly. Unless your company is the IT equivalent of Liechtenstein (but without the banks), a couple of hundreds [insert favourite currency here] should not be a problem.

What's more, having used JIRA and Bugzilla and Mantis (in the same project no less, which is indeed TRWTF but unrelated), I can report that JIRA is by far the most pleasant and useful. The only thing really wrong with it is the bizarre wiki-like syntax they use (borrowed from Confluence) which is really quite different to every other wiki syntax out there, but that's better than the outright hostility of Mantis and the reporting is significantly easier than with Bugzilla.

Given that ticketing is important, spending for a good system is reasonable. What's more, you can get JIRA for free if you're doing OSS.

<Sarcasm>If you are part of an anti free software company, you could always go with Rational ClearQuest, that would be better than this code.</Sarcasm>

How so?

I am from the future, so I need to know about this before it happens.

About the handling of CAT exceptions.

While CAT exceptions will help in reducing the bug population in your code, they can also be a nuisance, getting fur in all of your functions and scratching up the data structures. That is why you need code to properly handle CAT exceptions.

Severity One:

DOA:

Severity One:

Stuff like JIRA isn't that expensive, you know.

Hell, you can get Mantis or Bugzilla for free. The GUI will make your face melt, but it's got to be better than emails post-it notes.

As I said, stuff like JIRA isn't as expensive as having to set up one of these supposedly 'free' ticketing systems that take an inordinate amount of time to set up properly. Unless your company is the IT equivalent of Liechtenstein (but without the banks), a couple of hundreds [insert favourite currency here] should not be a problem.

You malign Bugzilla unfairly.

airdrik:

While CAT exceptions will help in reducing the bug population in your code, they can also be a nuisance, getting fur in all of your functions and scratching up the data structures. That is why you need code to properly handle CAT exceptions.

Confusious is saying that having cat in PC wil interfear with mouse.

airdrik:

While CAT exceptions will help in reducing the bug population in your code, they can also be a nuisance, getting fur in all of your functions and scratching up the data structures. That is why you need code to properly handle CAT exceptions.

And bear in mind that although they sleep quite regularly, they're not reliably thread-safe.

Don't even joke like that. It's not funny.

Mr Clever Ideas:

airdrik:

While CAT exceptions will help in reducing the bug population in your code, they can also be a nuisance, getting fur in all of your functions and scratching up the data structures. That is why you need code to properly handle CAT exceptions.

And bear in mind that although they sleep quite regularly, they're not reliably thread-safe.

+1000

You know, for the purpose of getting a list of useful ticketing software, this was probably more helpful than an Ask Slashdot post would have been. Thanks guys!

In other news, TRWTF is that I had to post this comment from my phone because the firewall here blocks the "img/jpeg" content type, thus the captcha was blocked. FML.

QJo:

...
You malign Bugzilla unfairly.

BugZilla is used by other regions of my company. In order to make the interface manageable by - well, non technical users - you do need to do quite a bit of work.

For a freebie I appreciate the good work of Corey Trager.

http://ifdefined.com/bugtrackernet.html

It may be coded a bit declaratively (on the plus side making it easy to change) and I'm not sure how current it is but it does most of what you might need.

callcopse:

QJo:

...
You malign Bugzilla unfairly.

BugZilla is used by other regions of my company. In order to make the interface manageable by - well, non technical users - you do need to do quite a bit of work.

For a freebie I appreciate the good work of Corey Trager.

http://ifdefined.com/bugtrackernet.html

It may be coded a bit declaratively (on the plus side making it easy to change) and I'm not sure how current it is but it does most of what you might need.

Oh, and foobar says BugZilla can be configured in a few weeks at most. I would agree. Sorry dude, we don't work on those timescales in my shop - you've got an afternoon if lucky. Bug Tracker.Net is perfect for that market.

ReadyDesk is a flat $200 purchase. Bugzilla is free. Either one can be configured by a semi-competent developer in at most a few weeks.

This site wouldn't exist if there were that many semi-competent developers out there.

Nor would much commercial software out there today.

olius:

ReadyDesk is a flat $200 purchase. Bugzilla is free. Either one can be configured by a semi-competent developer in at most a few weeks.

This site wouldn't exist if there were that many semi-competent developers out there.

Nor would much commercial software out there today.

Another vote for Bugtracker.NET

Nobody has mention fogbugz.

Any case we are not here to list product alternate. I like part where this person play video game at work pretending to work on some system. Then claim in job interview that he work on ticketing system and get high paying job, while the other developer is trying to fix bad stuff.

Thing like that happen all the time.

MrOli:

Salesforce? Month to configure?

*snigger*

I spend my entire working life configuring salesforce.

Usually around 3pm I have a little cry.

Nagesh:

It is bad practise not to be handling cat exeptions.

I hate when American customer specifically request cat exception. Don't they know cat more nutritious than Big Mac.

Nagesh:

Nobody has mention fogbugz.

Great, you had to link to Spolsky. Now it will be weeks before we can get the stench of smug self-satisfaction out.

So what about trac?

Spiceworks! Its free! And works quite well for my needs.

http://www.spiceworks.com

I think we get near to some deep truth about the universe.
It's somewhat like the question: how do you compile the first revision of your compiler. Or: where did they store the source code of svn?

The question is:
How one can could hope to develop a good ticketing system without one at hand?

P.S. we use trello.com, which is like post-it cards on steroids.

Get RedMine. If you want it too easy to believe then get the BitNami version.

bitnami.org/stack/redmine

MArk B.

Just litter the code with FIXME: comments.

qbolec:

The question is:
How one can could hope to develop a good ticketing system without one at hand?

Around here, I always can could hope for the developers to do the needful, I don't even.

I'll bet that anyone even considering using a spreadsheet application does not have the skills to create a working tool.

The guy instead found a way to learn PHP on company time before leaving.

No. Litter the code with DELETEME: comments.

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