Parallels Needs to Invest in JIRA

scottdelap · May 26, 2006

This is an open letter to the Parallels development and support teams. I'm a software developer. I know that writing software is difficult and managing bugs make it even more challenging. That being said I do not think that forum software is adequate as a bug tracking / accumulation mechanism. Watching the Parallels releases go out the door and attempting to keep tabs on various features has not been easy. I would like to propose a solution that i have first hand experience using.

A company named Atlassian makes a terrific bug tracking tool called JIRA:

http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/

Prices range from 1200-4800 depending on the version you buy. This seems like a small price to pay versus 100k beta tests the majority of which will probably buy and continue to use Parallels. JIRA easily handles multiple product simultaneously. Take a look at the Hibernate JIRA instance for example. They are tracking multiple related projects:

http://opensource.atlassian.com/projects/hibernate/secure/Dashboard.jspa

Finally, a public JIRA instance would let your users contributes bugs and make comments in a structured manner yet also allow your developers to better view and manage the chaos of bug tracking. If you don't want to host JIRA yourselves, might I suggest a company named Contegix which hosts JIRA instances for a number of IT companies:

http://www.contegix.com/solutions/asp/jira.action

Sheppy · May 26, 2006

Of course, there's also the free Bugzilla, which is excellent.

scottdelap · May 26, 2006

Re: Bugzilla

Bugzilla would be an improvement over the current - post bugs in the forums. That being said from using both Bugzilla as part of the Eclipse project and JIRA at various employers JIRA is worth the cost ... unless you have no budget in which case it is hard to argue with FREE.

Jisi · May 27, 2006

I agree, we need at least _some_ form, any form, of structured bug tracking. I can not comment on JIRA, because I don't know it, but surely it would be better than just (mis)using this forum.

tolaini · May 27, 2006

I bet that Parallels have an internal bug tracking system. And if I where them, I would not allow external access to this system. They would end up with:

* Lots of garbage (non-bugs, duplicates, etc.)

* Users complaining of those zillion bugs that are open and will not be closed before GA (yes, software ships with known bugs, this is a fact of life)

willwgm3 · May 27, 2006

tolaini said:
I bet that Parallels have an internal bug tracking system. And if I where them, I would not allow external access to this system. They would end up with:

* Lots of garbage (non-bugs, duplicates, etc.)

* Users complaining of those zillion bugs that are open and will not be closed before GA (yes, software ships with known bugs, this is a fact of life)

There are some advantages to opening a bug tracking system to the public:

1.) It allows users to search on known / open issues avoiding duplicate bug reports (freeing up developers and QA to do their jobs)

2.) JIRA allows users to vote on open bugs. This helps developers prioritize the issues.

3.) It gives your cusomer base a better sense of what is going on with the product.

Will

tolaini · May 27, 2006

willwgm3 said:
1.) It allows users to search on known / open issues avoiding duplicate bug reports (freeing up developers and QA to do their jobs)

People usually don't search for existing bugs, but open a new ticket everytime.

willwgm3 said:
2.) JIRA allows users to vote on open bugs. This helps developers prioritize the issues.

Prioritizing issues is much better done by QA department. I guess how important is having this pretty rotating cube when switching full screen, but it is not adding significant functionality. I bet people who are just playing with Parallels Desktop would vote en masse for this, only to show friends how cool it is!

willwgm3 said:
3.) It gives your cusomer base a better sense of what is going on with the product.

This should be done by PR department. A bug list is not a good indicator of the project status.

Jisi · May 27, 2006

I think we do not really need an open bug tracker, but some fomal means for submitting bugs. A web based wizard would be enough: Select Product->Select Version-> Select Problem (Networking, USB, kernel panic, etc...) ... you get it. Thus bug reports would be more structured for Parallels and thus easier to evaluate than going through the quagmire of forum messages.