620753 - make relationship between "FIXED on bmo" and "available to use" more transparent

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(bugzilla.mozilla.org :: General, defect)

Description

[Dan Mosedale (:dmosedale, :dmose)]

One thing we see in Bugzilla repeatedly is that people who are not deeply in the core of the community are puzzled when a bug is marked as FIXED, but that fix is not present in the version of the code they are using, or even in one that makes sense for them to download.

This is particularly tough for Gecko and MailNews core bugs, where it's not at all obvious how the numbers in "Target Milestone" and "Version" relate to the version numbering of the software product itself.

Igor has proposed a couple of options for addressing this:  

> First off, setting a milestone which was unset on this particular bug (and
> its not the first time) should be mandatory. You should not be able to close
> a bug as FIXED unless you set the milestone (i.e. the version in which the fix
> will be available to end users).

> Second, it would be more precise and less misleading if you could mark a bug
> as TARGETED TO BE FIXED instead of FIXED. Bug should be closed as FIXED only
> when a particular version containing the fix is released.

I suspect with some brainstorming, we ought to be able to come up with other options as well.

Comment 1

[Dan Mosedale (:dmosedale, :dmose)]

See also Steve's bug 620069 comment 6, which offers another good option here.

Comment 2

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

Looking at the general problem: way back when, the CLOSED state was supposed to be used in this way. Bugs were RESOLVED FIXED when a fix was checked in, VERIFIED fixed when that fix had made it into a nightly build and it had been confirmed that the bug was no longer present, and CLOSED FIXED when that fix had shipped. However, even in the early days of Bugzilla, this usage was not consistent, and eventually died out entirely.

This makes me sceptical of the workability of some system where, when a release happens, some change is made to the bugs fixed by that release. (Although we have better release driving and processes now, so things might be different.) And anyway we again run into the problem of multiple releases of multiple products at different times.

To address Igor's specific proposals:

1) This would require a code change. And because we probably wouldn't want it across all of Bugzilla, it would require limiting to certain products. And we'd have to get general agreement that it would be a welcome reminder rather than a hassle for people.

2) I definitely don't think redefining the meaning of the current FIXED resolution is a good idea. That would be very confusing to almost everyone in the community - who are Bugzilla's primary audience. We could, instead, add a new status for "SHIPPED" or similar - but see above. Alternatively, we could add a little explanatory text which appeared only when the resolution was FIXED. (Which is, of course, more text and complexity.)

Dan: I'm not seeing the relevance of bug 620069 comment 6, which seems to be talking about a message a user might get after filing a bug. Can you clarify?

Gerv

Comment 3

[Dan Mosedale (:dmosedale, :dmose)]

I'm intrigued by both the SHIPPED status and the explanatory text/resolution, for what it's worth.

My thinking about the message sent at bug-filing time would be that it would be opportunity to give people filing a bug a little more context into what that bug actually represents and what they can expect as it progresses.

Comment 4

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

I think a message at bug filing time would be a good idea for a number of reasons, and would allow us to help people with this issue without further UI complexity.

Gerv

Comment 5

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

David Eaves: wasn't a message to new users at first-bug-filing time one of the enhancements you were working on with Guy and Diederik? How's that going?

Gerv

Comment 6

[David Lawrence [:dkl]]

Putting this on hold til after BMO 4.0 is released. We plan to address all bugs related to workflow changes together then.

Comment 7

[David Lawrence [:dkl]]

(In reply to Gervase Markham [:gerv] from comment #5)
> David Eaves: wasn't a message to new users at first-bug-filing time one of
> the enhancements you were working on with Guy and Diederik? How's that going?
> 
> Gerv

This should be worked on as a separate bug and we think it would not be difficult to do. Can you please move this part to a bug of it's own or provide the bug id if one is already present?

Thanks
dkl

Comment 8

[David Eaves]

If someone can work on it, I'm happy to hop on skype and brainstorm further how to tackle it. I think it is pretty straight forward but would love the opportunity to think about small things we could do to make this experience even better.

Cheers,
Dave eaves

Comment 9

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

Can someone who is keen on this idea and therefore able to formulate an argument for it well, please file a bug covering it?

Thanks,

Gerv