June 9, 2010
Backlog Tagging Best Practices
Helix ALM
In a recent article, we discussed the importance of backlogs. You may be wondering how to organize backlog items in TestTrack. You can use folders or custom fields as a way to "tag" or categorize stories, bugs, and other types of artifacts found in a typical backlog bucket.
Following are some pros and cons of each method.
Email sign upFolders
Pros
- Flexible, with ability to drag-and-drop items to different folders
- Better visibility from the UI, with easily understood hierarchical relationship
- Multiple TestTrack item types (defects, test cases, user stories, etc.) can be in the same folder
Cons
- Limited ability to look at prior categorization decisions because history is not tracked
Custom Fields
Pros
- Can be required, forcing new bugs or feature requests to be categorized by the submitter
- Finer-grained control over who can change a value
- Integrated change history to track past categorizations
- Can be changed in bulk (bulk changes are typically an admin-level function)
- If you're tracking quantitative data, a numeric custom field can be used to permit list window summing
Cons
- Each item type (defect, test case, user story) must define its own custom field for priority with a shared list of values