Issues List Templates

[richg1]

Hi,

More of a general project management question, but I have tasked myself to develop/improve some of our company's tracking docs including the Issues List.

Does anyone know/have any good templates f/ an Excel based Issues List for product development purposes?

Have had a look at JIRA (an excellect looking full blown issues tracking software package) for some insight but wondered what else may be out there.

Any help as always much appreciated...Rich

 

[MintJulep]

Mozilla.

 

[richg1]

Hey MJ,

My understanding was Bugzilla, assuming that was what you are referring to, was primarily for software developers.

I work for a product design team, and perhaps unlike software projects, have more short to medium term projects. So detailed tracking long term is not a high priority. Reason for developing something in excel is usability and access, with lower setup overheads...

Having said that I am looking for something a little more than a simple spreadsheet...

 

[MintJulep]

Right, Bugzilla.

What do you need to accomplish?

Just a list? Just current status? Responsibility? History?
Tracking of relavant documents and drawings?

 

[richg1]

Correct regarding the list with basic issue tracking info: Date raised, raised by, issue, component, asseigned to, date complete, etc...

But beyond that I was wondering, if in excel has anyone taken it a little further with some VBA programming etc. Obvioulsy there's many ways of doing the same thing, but I was interested in incorporating some automatic email generation etc, much like JIRA, etc. Also was interested in tying it together with meeting agenda and meeting minutes documentation.

It probably doesn't exist how I imagine it could and I will probably develop our own tools, but thought it would be handy to see how other people do it. So have reviewed JIRA for some ideas and now bugzilla.

Will post back when I have something a bit more developed...

 

[cowski]

I have been thinking about the same problem for a while now. Currently our team uses either a simple list in excel or word to track issues, part(s) affected, person assigned, date due, etc etc. I would love to just press a button and print a list of all the current issues assigned to me in order of priority, but with our current system it is not possible.

I'm leaning toward a database solution (Microsoft Access). I think once you have a good idea what you want, a database guru could set it up pretty quickly. Now I need to find a guru or a good book.

 

[zappedagain]

I like Issueview (

http://www.issueview.com).

We use it to track the status of systems, software, hardware, bugs, feature requests, odd things that occur...

It is easily customizable and user friendly. After comparing over 20 bug trackers this one came out on top for our requirements.

 

[DRC1]

You should look at Primavera's Expedition. It allows you to generate transmittals, Letters and submittal responses while logging everything. It also allows you to asign issues to everything. Thus if you have a particular issue, such as an owners request for a change, you can pull up all the documents related to the issue. The submittal tracking works very well.

 

[trainguy]

Cowski:

Using a simple Excel spreadsheet and turning on filtering will do just what you describe (your own personal issues list...)

Just enter your data, select the cells above your range, and select Data/Filter/Autofilter.

Then, select from the drop down menus created by Autofilter.

The coolest thing about this is your ability to apply formatting to just those rows, or to just print those rows..., then turn off Autofilter and see what happens.

tg

 

[richg1]

It's been a while since I started this thread but based on my requirements and not wanting to fork out $$$ for overly complicated software I created an excel spreadsheet with all the necessary columns, etc. Also wrote some basic vb script to export active/current issues, etc and a summary page, with pie charts!!!...

Happy to share it for feedback. Is there any way of attaching it to this thread? Or can someone recommend a suitable 'free' upload site and I'll post the url.

Next is to work out how to export the issues into Outlook Tasks or similar. Any suggestions also appreciated...

 

[cowski]

If you find a suitable upload site (I don't have any recommendations), I would like to see what you have.

 

[richg1]

Here it is...

http://rapidshare.com/files/426585/tmpl_issueslist__no_logo_.xlt

(note: need to have macro security down to medium to run vbscripts)

Next step: Output active issues to Outlook as Tasks...

 

[bltseattle]

Excel VB linkage to outlook is discussed here:

http://www.dicks-clicks.com/excel/olAutomating.htm

 

[brengine]

Bugzilla (

http://www.bugzilla.org/)

Mantis (

http://www.mantisbt.org/)

See

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_issue_tracking_systems

for a good run-down of available systems