Our Philosophy & Overview
We've foregone many of the traditional trappings of bug and issue tracking systems that make them so intimidating in favor of creating a system that the whole team will want to use each and every day.
Figure 1 Throughout the project, the tasks assigned to you or originally created by you are readily accessible.
Participation
It doesn't really matter how advanced a system is if the entire team isn't on board and using it. We believe bug and issue tracking should be less intimidating and be simple enough to get everyone involved. That's where it starts.
We've worked tirelessly to simplify how the bug and issue tracking process works so that it's no longer just the realm of the technical folks, and we're seeing some pretty exciting results.
Accountability
Once the whole team is participating, the next most important feature of Sifter is its obsessive focus on accountability. In our opinion, the best way to make sure work gets done is to ensure that every task has a champion. As a result, every issue has an opener and assignee, and if an issue slips through without an assignee, Sifter will let you know.
Not only do we display the assignee throughout, but we've designed the navigation around this concept of ownership. (Figure 1) Everyone has quick and easy access to the list of issues currently assigned to them as well as a list of issues that they opened and assigned to someone else.
Figure 2 Status and priority are never more than a glance away.
Status
At this point, everyone is involved and has an easily accessible list of tasks. However, without a current status for the task, it's difficult to know what to do next. So, for us, issue status is the third leg of the tripod.
Throughout Sifter, it's always easy to quickly tell the status and priority of an issue. From the issue listing page (Figure 2) to the status bar, there's never any doubt what's next for any given issue. That way, everyone knows the next steps and can work together to make it happen.
Ready for more?
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Take a closer look at the following aspects of Sifter…