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In the majority of the organizations, different teams have the right to choose their preferred bug management and tracking tools. And of course, this is right? Teams do have the right to choose and use the bug management tools they are comfortable with. The tool that aligns properly with their workflow, the tool that makes it easier for them to collaborate and handle the bugs. However, different teams maintaining and managing their bugs under different management tools, it is feasible in the long term when the team grows?
If you ask me the same question, I’ll say absolutely no.
In the long term, when the company scales up, different team members join the organization, it will become really difficult for everyone to be on the same page or to achieve the goal when everyone is managing bugs at different places. There is no doubt, there are various bug management tools like Asana, JIRA, Trello which makes it easier for teams to collaborate but when teams use different tools for the same purpose, it becomes next to impossible for teams to maintain the coordination and collaboration.
Related Read: Top 19 Collaboration Tools for Your Software Testing Team
So, if teams are more likely to work together, without chaos, it becomes really necessary to keep the entire issue tracking under the same umbrella in one place.
How issue tracking for teams helps when kept under the same umbrella?
#1 Less Chaos and Headaches
Well, if the organization is not on the same page, there is no denying in the fact it causes a lot of chaos and misunderstanding between the teams. When the different departments are not aligned, it becomes really difficult for project managers to keep a track of progress and blockers. Some teams might miss out on communication and it will cause a blocker in delivery, thinking this was pending from their side or from someone else’s side. However, no one will be ready to take responsibility and will cause big chaos.
Even though keeping the same issue tracker won’t eliminate these problems, however, it will help teams to collaborate on a common front and will be a correct small step in the same direction.
#2 More accountability
When there is a barrier between different teams, it results in the lack of accountability. If the teams are not on the same page in terms of bug and issue tracking, the communication fails and it results in a lot of problems between the teams.
This also leads to a blame game between the departments. The support team starts blaming the development team, the development teams put it on the product managers, product manager goes for the QA and this goes on. This leads everything to be a mess and no one gets to know where all of this fell apart. At the end of the day, everyone just knows one thing that things are not working. So, by keeping things clear and transparent this can be avoided.
#3 Improvised Risk Management
By keeping issue tracking all in one place warns the teams for any coming risks hence it also helps to manage the upcoming risks. If the information is not reached to the right person or the right department, it impacts the complete organization. Issue tracking in one place eliminates this and hence decreases the risk by removing the barrier between the teams.
If this is not done properly, anyone who is in charge or is responsible for that specific project will face the results of a project that is not properly managed and hence everyone has to do the extra tasks and it also results in unsatisfied and angry people.
#4 Better Communication between the teams
Poor communication between the teams leads to the end of the organization as the rage develops over time and also causes headaches between the teams. Just imagine the testers found an issue and reported to the developers regarding the same. The project manager did not get to know about it and the issue appeared again to the customers. The project manager raises the same and developers burst on reporting the same again. However, the manager was not aware of it. This sort of miscommunication can cause more than just the revenue to the company. It might lead to the loss of valuable employees as well.
So, if all of them were using the same issue tracking tool, it would have been easier for all of them to identify the exact point where the miscommunication happened. In that case, if testers are using a tool they can use the other for bug management. However, using different tools for them become difficult. Tools like LambdaTest helps you manage your bugs and issues directly to the issue tracking tool you use from your testing tool. Hence saving the team from chaos.
How Does Keeping Issue Tracking In One Place Help The Organization?
Well, keeping this in one place helps the organizations to stand united. Less chaos and all departments under the single roof for all the teams. For development teams, it directly relates to choosing a tool that helps in bug management effectively. For testing teams, finding a tool that goes well and integrates with all the bug management tools easily. Just like LambdaTest which easily integrated with JIRA, Asana, Trello, Bitbucket, Gitlab and similar 13 bug management tools.
Before choosing a new tool or application for your department, discuss all the possibilities with your team members and members from other teams as well and go for the bug management tool that aligns with the workflow of all the teams. Find out the different pain points for other teams as well and you’ll be amazed to find that the teams majorly struggle on the same things but from different perspectives. While in this process of selecting different tools for issue tracking, make the other teams and your team realize the bigger picture and the benefits if adopting a common bug tracking tool in the long term. This will solve the majority of your team problems and you’ll come up as a single united organization.
To Conclude
Issue tracking all in one place is necessary for the teams to work together, to eliminate the mismanagement, miscommunication, and reduce the chances of fighting between the teams. This helps to get a clear picture by maintaining the transparency in the process of issue tracking and understanding what needs to be taken at priority. How much efforts does every team member put to attain the goal for the organization? And in the end, how to be a better organization. Hence it is necessary for teams to be transparent in their process throughout the project by eliminating the barriers and walls between the teams.
