<chapter id="introduction"> <title>Introduction</title> <section id="what-is-bugzilla"> <title>What is Bugzilla?</title> <para> Bugzilla is a bug- or issue-tracking system. Bug-tracking systems allow individual or groups of developers effectively to keep track of outstanding problems with their products. </para> <para><emphasis>Do we need more here?</emphasis></para> </section> <section id="why-tracking"> <title>Why use a bug-tracking system?</title> <para>Those who do not use a bug-tracking system tend to rely on shared lists, email, spreadsheets and/or Post-It notes to monitor the status of defects. This procedure is usually error-prone and tends to cause those bugs judged least significant by developers to be dropped or ignored.</para> <para>Integrated defect-tracking systems make sure that nothing gets swept under the carpet; they provide a method of creating, storing, arranging and processing defect reports and enhancement requests.</para> </section> <section id="why-bugzilla"> <title>Why use Bugzilla?</title> <para>Bugzilla is the leading open-source/free software bug tracking system. It boasts many advanced features, including: <itemizedlist> <listitem> <para>Powerful searching</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>User-configurable email notifications of bug changes</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Full change history</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Inter-bug dependency tracking and graphing</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Excellent attachment management</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Integrated, product-based, granular security schema</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Fully security-audited, and runs under Perl's taint mode</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>A robust, stable RDBMS back-end</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Completely customizable and/or localizable web user interface</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Additional XML, email and console interfaces</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Extensive configurability</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Smooth upgrade pathway between versions</para> </listitem> </itemizedlist> </para> <para>Bugzilla is very adaptable to various situations. Known uses currently include IT support queues, Systems Administration deployment management, chip design and development problem tracking (both pre-and-post fabrication), and software and hardware bug tracking for luminaries such as Redhat, NASA, Linux-Mandrake, and VA Systems. Combined with systems such as <ulink url="http://www.cvshome.org">CVS</ulink>, <ulink url="http://www.mozilla.org/bonsai.html">Bonsai</ulink>, or <ulink url="http://www.perforce.com">Perforce SCM</ulink>, Bugzilla provides a powerful, easy-to-use configuration management solution.</para> </section> </chapter> <!-- Keep this comment at the end of the file Local variables: mode: sgml sgml-always-quote-attributes:t sgml-auto-insert-required-elements:t sgml-balanced-tag-edit:t sgml-exposed-tags:nil sgml-general-insert-case:lower sgml-indent-data:t sgml-indent-step:2 sgml-local-catalogs:nil sgml-local-ecat-files:nil sgml-minimize-attributes:nil sgml-namecase-general:t sgml-omittag:t sgml-parent-document:("Bugzilla-Guide.xml" "book" "chapter") sgml-shorttag:t sgml-tag-region-if-active:t End: -->