Bugzilla as a task management tool

[Christopher Hicks]

On Thu, 10 Jul 2003, Myk Melez wrote:
> Instead of modifying the database schema, use dependencies (i.e. bugs 
> dependent on a parent are subtasks, other bugs are tasks).

I use bug dependancies for such purposes now.  It fails for several 
reasons:

- you still have no way to differentiate between "normal bug dependancies" 
and "this depended upon bug is actually a task necessary to completely fix  
a bug"

- notes can be spread across dozens of bugs.

- tasks really deserve to be treated differently and should be easily 
flaggable.

> Then, hack the UI (and Perl code when necessary) to provide a subtask
> creation/deletion interface inside "show bug", and hack the dependency
> tree to give you your prioritized list of tasks with subtasks.

Something like that will obviously have to be done.  But if you don't have 
a way to determine which dependancies are subtasks and which are real 
prerequisites then you can't start.

> You don't need database modifications to do this; you just need to
> optimize the UI for your particular application.

I don't see what in the current database would allow this to be 
designated.  Adding one tinyint(1) flag to the bug table really doesn't 
seem such a burden.

-- 
</chris>

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