Issue overview

An issue in BTS can be a bug or patch, a change request, a feature request, a project task or subtask, or a support request. Each issue is given a unique number for tracking and organized into a page that looks like this (click to enlarge):

1. Project and issue summary information
2. Available actions on the toolbar
3. Issue details
4. People involved in the issue
5. Detailed description of the issue
6. Important issue dates
7. Recent issue activity

The fields, available actions and operations displayed may vary, depending on your level of access, the project or the issue status.

Project and issue summary information

Issue title and project bread-crumb trail. — The issue's title appears with a bread-crumb trail to higher-level issues.

This section of the bug provides you the issue's title. Well-formed issues will summarize the work requested in a short phrase–a preview of what can be expected in the details of the issue.

Above the issue's title is a bread-crumb trail to the issue. This can give you an idea of what umbrella tasks the issue belongs to and what project is responsible for the issue. You can click on the links to see related issues involved in the project.

Available actions on the toolbar

The actions toolbar is composed of buttons that allow you to interact with the issue. Depending on your level of access, and your role in the issue, these buttons may vary. These actions are described in detail in the Issues section of this documentation. Most basically, the actions toolbar allows you to edit issue details, assign the issue to another BTS user, attach additional files, or change or resolve the issue's status.

Issue details

Issue details contain metadata about the issue. Here you will find the issue's components, labels, security, test case URLs, and more. The most important information you'll need regarding these concepts is explained in the issue types, priority levels and statuses.

People involved in the issue

people details — See who's assigned to an issue, who reported the issue and other people involved in the **People** section.

The left sidebar lists the users associated with the issue: who the current assignee is, who reported the issue, and who is carbon-copied on notifications about the issue. You can also choose to watch any issue, if you wish, by clicking the 'Watch' link at the bottom of this section. The issue will then appear in your dashboard in the watched issues gadget.

Detailed description of the issue

description details — The request or task is defined in the **Description** section.

This section describes the issue in detail. This information is specified by the user who reports the issue. The description is a good place to look if you are unfamiliar with the issue.

Well-formed descriptions will lay out the task need and any hand-offs required to complete the task. An expected date for delivery or resolution of the task may be found here, as well. Links to related issues can be defined by editing the issue's details (a new section will appear).

Important issue dates

dates details — Information about when the issue was created and the last time it was updated appears in the **Dates** section.

The left sidebar also lists dates associated with the issue: when it was created, when it was last updated, and when/if it has been resolved. These are good references for finding out the age of the issue and when it was last addressed.

Recent issue activity

activity details — The **Activity** section houses an issue's discussion and historical record.

This section contains all of the discussion, worklogs, and history associated with the issue. Arguably the most important part of the Activity section are comments. Reading through comments can help update you to what's happening in the issue's lifecycle and perma-linking to comments can be helpful in any related discussion on other issues, or to quickly orient another BTS user to the situation surrounding an issue.