162998 - [RFE] Due Date field for bugs

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 103636

(Bugzilla :: Bugzilla-General, enhancement)

Description

[Paul Baker]

It would be nice if there was a way to specify a Due Date for bugs. This would
be a field where you would specify the date a bug needs to be fixed by. I
realize this is similar to the Milestone field, but Milestones are sort of
coarce values, it doesn't give you the granularity an actual date field would
bring. You would of course then be able to sort on this field in the bug list
and you would actually see a bug fixing schedule. You may even go so far as to
add an ETA date field, but then that is to much duplication with the milestone
field anyway.

Having a due date field also opens up the opportunity for some great reports. By
comparing the due date with the date a bug was marked resolved, you can create
reports such as how many bugs were fixed early, how many were fixed on time, or
how many were late.

Since Mozilla.org doesn't really set any firm deadlines or anything, I can see
why this field wasn't called for before, but now that Bugzilla is used in more
and more places, I expect there is a wide-spread need for a field of this nature.

Comment 1

[Paul Baker]

Another feature that could go along with this, would be with the whineatnews
feature. There could be the ability to whine when a bug is due within a day or 2
or whatever and it is no currently resolved.

Comment 2

[Bruce Burdick]

This would be a great feature. A current client is prepending the Summary with ISO dates 
as a workaround. The date feature would allow Bugzilla to function as a project planning 
tool. Reporting could be built around this feature that would allow Gannt charting, as 
well. But I suppose that's for another bug.

Comment 3

[Kurt Stephens]

I agree.

I digress, but "estimated work hrs", "cummulative work hrs", and "percent
completed" fields also would help to see how far off the "Due Date" might be missed.

"estimated work hrs" .vs. "cummulative work hrs" will help orgs to determine the
historic reliabilty of their estimates.

"perecent completed" * "estimated work hrs" can be compared with the "due date"
do determine if due dates are unreasonable or high-risk for meeting schedule. 
There are scores of other metrics that can be determined from the combination of
these 4.

The problem with metrics like these are they they could be used by unscrupulous
project mgrs to prove someone's "ineffectiveness".  Anyway, I can certainly
justify them in most orgs I've worked in.

In general, I wish bugzilla was less of an "open-source software bug" tracking
tool and more general process tracking tool.  Most of the commerical software
industry would benefit from more open process tracking tool.  A lot of
commercial process tracking tools are much more flexible than bugzilla.

The problem with bugzilla is that you cannot add new fields easily: different
processes require different metrics.  Unfortunatly, not everyone develops
software with an open-source process.  Someone has alerted me that there is a
bug that is related to the general problem.  See Bug#91037.

Comment 4

[Bradley Baetz (:bbaetz)]

See bug 24789, too.

Comment 5

[Jeff Hedlund]

Is this a dupe of bug 103636?

Comment 6

[Bradley Baetz (:bbaetz)]

Yep, thanks

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 103636 ***