TOP 10 OPEN SOURCE BUG TRACKING TOOLS FOR SOFTWARE TESTING

TOP 10 OPEN SOURCE BUG TRACKING TOOLS 

All IT projects needs a bug tracking (or issue tracking, or defect tracking) system.

Sure, we need a bug tracking system for a software development project. But, what about a sysadmin team, dba team, network team? They all need some help to track their work, and issues of their system, database and network.

We've listed 10 open source bug tracking systems , that you can experiment, and choose based on your taste and requirement. This is not a comprehensive list by any means.

I love bugzilla, and have been using it for several years. If you don’t have time to play around with multiple systems to figure-out which one you like, just go with Bugzilla.

1. Bugzilla

Are you looking for a stable, actively maintained, widely adapted bug tracking system? Look no further. Bugzilla is for you.

This is used by various big open source projects to track their bugs. For example, Linux kernel development team, Apache development team, GNOME development team uses Bugzilla. Red Hat also uses Bugzilla to track the issues found in Red Hat Distribution system.

Bugzilla Features:

• Time tracking 
• Private attachment and commenting 
• Flexible reporting and charting. Including ability to to scheduled reports and receive it via email. 
• Add custom fields and workflows. 
• Optimized database structure for increased performance and scalability
• Excellent security to protect confidentiality
• Advanced query tool that can remember your searches
• Integrated email capabilities
• Editable user profiles and comprehensive email preferences
• Comprehensive permissions system

Additional Info: 

• Home Page: http://www.bugzilla.org 
• Developed by: Mozilla foundation 
• Current Release: 4.5.2 , 4.4.2 
• License: Mozilla public license 

2. MantisBT

MantisBT is a popular open source web-based bug tracking system. Built on PHP and supports Linux, Windows and Mac OS X on the server side. Compatible with Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera and IE 7+. 

Mantis Features: 

• Source code integration 
• Time tracking 
• Issue relationship graph 
• Custom fields and workflow 
• Anonymous access 

Additional Info:

• Home Page: http://www.mantisbt.org 
• Current Release: 1.2.17
• License: GNU General Public License

3. Trac

Trac is an enhanced wiki and issue tracking system for software development projects.Trac is written in Python. Apart from issue tracking, it also provides wiki, and integration to subversion. The web interface is very simplistic and easy to use. This also provides project management features including roadmap and milestone tracking.Trac allows wiki markup in issue descriptions and commit messages, creating links and seamless references between bugs, tasks, changesets, files and wiki pages.

Additional Info:

• Home Page: http://trac.edgewall.org/ 
• Current Release: 1.0
• License: BSD

4. Redmine

Redmine is a flexible project management web application. Written using the Ruby on Rails framework, it is cross-platform and cross-database.Redmine is open source and released under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2 (GPL).Redmine is written in Ruby on Rails. Apart from tracking issues, it provides a full project management features.

Redmine Features:

• LDAP Authentication  
• Multiple projects support
• Flexible role based access control
• Flexible issue tracking system
• Gantt chart and calendar
• News, documents & files management
• Feeds & email notifications
• Per project wiki
• Per project forums
• Time tracking
• Custom fields for issues, time-entries, projects and users
• SCM integration (SVN, CVS, Git, Mercurial, Bazaar and Darcs)
• Issue creation via email

Additional Info:

• Home Page: http://www.redmine.org/ 
• Current Release: 2.5.1 , 2.4.5
• License: GNU v2 

5. Request Tracker

RT is a battle-tested issue tracking system which thousands of organizations use for bug tracking, help desk ticketing, customer service, workflow processes,change management, network operations, youth counselling and even more.Organizations around the world have been running smoothly thanks to RT for over 10 years.RT is written in Perl. Apart from the standard issue management, you can use this as a ticket tracking system.

RT Features:

• Seamless PGP support for encrypting, decrypting, signing, and verifying outgoing and incoming email
• Mobile-optimized interface for you and your staff's iPhone, Android, and WebOS devices
• Time tracking and reporting 
• Integrate with LDAP authentication 
• Easy branding and custom theming with our theme editor

Additional Info:

• Home Page: http://bestpractical.com/rt/ 
• Current Release: 4.2.3
• License: GPL v2 

6. OTRS

A Help Desk software such as OTRS also known as Trouble Ticketing software or Service Desk software – helps service organizations collect manifold requests from their customers via phone, email, SMS, customer portal, etcetera in one system and route them to the correct service team or department using a queue. The request can be identified by its ticket number and the following communication can be assigned to this ticket as further articles. Compared to an ordinary email client system where every staff member has his or her own inbox, ticket systems like OTRS make it possible to answer customer requests from a central web-based platform, meaning that every service team member takes a ticket from the queue or gets assigned to it.

ORTS Features:

• New Management Dashboard with helpful statistics
• Easier access and permission management with the new ACL editor
• Real-Time Ticket Automation with the new event-based Generic Agent
• A clearly arranged Dashboard with the new Dashboard Ticket Filter
• Support of Retina Displays

Additional Info:

• Home Page: http://otrs.org/ 
• Current Release: 3.3
• License: GPL 

7. Eventum 

This was developed by the MySQL team, and written in PHP. You can use this as a bug tracking tool, or issue tracking system. This provides all the basic features that you might expect in a tracking system.

 Eventum Features:

• Allow visitors to signup with new Eventum accounts
• Ability to run several projects with the same instance of Eventum
• Create / Modify / Delete custom issue resolutions
• Track duplicate issues
• Integrate your support emails with issues in Eventum
• Quickly check and modify issues without opening a web browser

Additional Info:

• Home Page: http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/other/eventum/features.html
• Stable Release: 2.2
• License: GPL

8. Fossil

Fossil is a distributed version control system, bug tracking system and wiki software server for use in software development created by D. Richard Hipp.Fossil is written in C, and uses SQLite database. Apart from bug tracking, it also provides Wiki. Installation is very straight forward, as it is a single executable that contains everything you need to get fossil up and running.

Fossil Features:

• Fossil is a cross-platform server that runs on Linux, BSD derivatives, Mac and Windows. 
• It is capable of performing distributed version control, bug tracking, wiki services, and blogging.
• The software has a built-in web interface, which reduces project tracking complexity and promotes situational awareness.
• Being distributed, Fossil requires no central server, although collaboration is made easier by using one.

Additional Info:

Home Page: http://www.fossil-scm.org

Latest release : 1.28License: 2-clause BSD

9. The Bug Genie

The Bug Genie is free and open source, web-based project management and bug tracking system. Main functionality includes bug- and issue tracking, reporting, project management, integrated wiki and integration with commonly used version control systems such as Git, Mercurial, Perforce and SVN .Bug genie is written in PHP. Provides a wizard based bug tracking software. It also integrates the open search functionality. Integrates with Subversion. You can develop your custom modules on top of bug genie.

The Bug Genie Features:

• issue tracking
• project management
• integrated wiki
• version control integration
• customizable workflow
• themeable interface
• RSS support
• command line tools
• incoming and outgoing email

Additional Info:

• Home Page: http://www.thebuggenie.com/
• Current Release: 3.2.6
• License: MPL

10. WebIssues

WebIssue is written in PHP, and uses MySQL database for the server side. Everything in this top 10 list is web based bug tracking system except WebIssues. This is at number#10 because it doesn’t provide a web-based interface. You need webissues client that runs on Windows, or Linux to access the server component.

WebIssues Features:

• Easy installation and setup
• Filtering and searching issues
• Tracking new and modified issues
• Creating reports and exporting data
• Sending and receiving emails
• Security and rights management

Additional Info:

• Home Page: http://webissues.mimec.org/
• Current Release: 1.1.1
• License: Open Source

Which OPEN SOURCE BUG TRACKING TOOL do you like the most , do share with us.Your feedbacks are valuable.