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Hello,
I just thought I'd post this here, because it is rather important. This was posted in the announcements forum when we announced the release of the latest Service Releases for both V-Ray for Rhino and V-Ray for SketchUp. The post can be found here:
http://asgvis.com/index.php?option=c...0&topic=3554.0
and here
http://asgvis.com/index.php?option=c...0&topic=3555.0
I'll repeat it again now, to save everyone an extra click:
The question has come up a couple times "why did you change the way you track bugs??". The answer is quite simple really. Our new bug tracking software, allows us to seamlessly integrate bug reports with our development process. So the exact moment you send us a bug report, our developers recieve the bug report, and it actually shows up in Visual Studio, as they're developing. This means there are some HUGE benefits. What kind of benefits?
1. The developers actually see the bugs you're reporting.
2. Faster response times.
3. You can see the status of a bug you report.
4. You have a more direct line of communication with the developers, and our development process.
5. Related bugs and trends are easier to see, which makes a much more efficient workflow for our developers.
That's just to name a few.
In the past, we used "bug threads" on our forum, just like this thread, to track bugs. There's a number of problems with this method of bug tracking.
1. If someone posts a bug, other users that may be experiencing similar problems, may think that their bugs are related, when in fact, they are NOT related. Unfortunately, unless you have access to the source code, and are able to debug our application, there's no way for anyone to be 100% sure that bugs are related. The more bug reports we get, from as many people as possible, the better chance we have of tracking down a bug and fixing it. If someone says "when I click this button it crashes", that doesn't really help. But if we get 50 bug reports from a variety of users, on multiple operating systems, and they all explain the situation in a slightly different way, we might end up with enough clues to actually figure out what's wrong.
2. Bugs get lost on the forums, they get buried under pages and pages of opinions, feature requests, idle chit chat, and work arounds. The forums are designed so that our users can communicate with each other, so these things are perfectly fine to do on the forums. Bugs on the other hand... those need to be sent to our developers. If our developers spend all day looking through the forums, trying to figure out what is a feature request, and what is an actual bug, they'll never get anything done. Bug tracking software allows us to separate the diagnostic information that we need in order to fix an issue, from regular conversation. Again, we're not saying that you shouldn't communicate to each other about issues, we're just saying that if you have a bug, and you don't submit it through our bug tracking software, it makes it very difficult for our developers to efficiently resolve any issues.
3. We recieve support emails, support questions on the forums, bug submissions via email, bug submissiosn via the forums, how-to questions, feature requests, sales questions, general inqueries, and so on, all the time. The biggest problem is keeping track of everything. We have most things separated out. For instance, if you have a sales question, you're probably not going to ask it in a bug thread on the forum. Likewise, you're probably not going to ask our sales people about support questions. As we grow and expand, we need to make sure that information continues to flow through the proper channels. At this point, we have determined that having bugs listed in our forums, is just not working. Too many times, has a bug slipped through our fingers due to lack of information, or a bug being posted in some odd place on our forums, or for whatever other reason. We have spent months researching and then implementing a more efficient, and streamlined way to track bugs. We now have the solution, and it is in place.
Again, we're not trying to stop all of you from communicating with each other about issues, workarounds, etc. All we're asking, is if you find a bug, PLEASE submit it through the proper channels.
Thank You,
Devin Kendig
Developer
ASGvis LLC.
I just thought I'd post this here, because it is rather important. This was posted in the announcements forum when we announced the release of the latest Service Releases for both V-Ray for Rhino and V-Ray for SketchUp. The post can be found here:
http://asgvis.com/index.php?option=c...0&topic=3554.0
and here
http://asgvis.com/index.php?option=c...0&topic=3555.0
I'll repeat it again now, to save everyone an extra click:
With this update, we have made changes to our support process. We have begun to implement a more efficient bug tracking process. In the past we would just create a "bug thread", and ask that users post any technical questions or concerns in that thread. This was an easy way to collect a list of bugs, but it was not very useful when it came to actually fixing them. Our new support and bug tracking system allows us to address questions and concerns much faster, and much easier than our previous method.
If you have any technical questions or concerns, please follow these simple instructions:
Quote
1. Click "Support" at the top of the site. You will then be taken to a page that will give you links to our Knowledgebase and User Forums, as well as a new option to "Contact Our Support Team".
2. Click on "Contact Our Support Team". You will be taken to a page that will have links for Technical Support and Feature Requests for each of our products.
3. Click on " V-Ray for Rhino Technical Support" or "V-Ray for Sketchup Technical Support". You will be taken to a page with a form, and some simple instructions that explain what information we will need from you, in order to best answer your questions. We would also like to note, that the links that you see for Feature Requests, will not put you in contact with the correct support team. This is intended for requesting new features in our products only.
If you have any technical questions or concerns, please follow these simple instructions:
Quote
1. Click "Support" at the top of the site. You will then be taken to a page that will give you links to our Knowledgebase and User Forums, as well as a new option to "Contact Our Support Team".
2. Click on "Contact Our Support Team". You will be taken to a page that will have links for Technical Support and Feature Requests for each of our products.
3. Click on " V-Ray for Rhino Technical Support" or "V-Ray for Sketchup Technical Support". You will be taken to a page with a form, and some simple instructions that explain what information we will need from you, in order to best answer your questions. We would also like to note, that the links that you see for Feature Requests, will not put you in contact with the correct support team. This is intended for requesting new features in our products only.
The question has come up a couple times "why did you change the way you track bugs??". The answer is quite simple really. Our new bug tracking software, allows us to seamlessly integrate bug reports with our development process. So the exact moment you send us a bug report, our developers recieve the bug report, and it actually shows up in Visual Studio, as they're developing. This means there are some HUGE benefits. What kind of benefits?
1. The developers actually see the bugs you're reporting.
2. Faster response times.
3. You can see the status of a bug you report.
4. You have a more direct line of communication with the developers, and our development process.
5. Related bugs and trends are easier to see, which makes a much more efficient workflow for our developers.
That's just to name a few.
In the past, we used "bug threads" on our forum, just like this thread, to track bugs. There's a number of problems with this method of bug tracking.
1. If someone posts a bug, other users that may be experiencing similar problems, may think that their bugs are related, when in fact, they are NOT related. Unfortunately, unless you have access to the source code, and are able to debug our application, there's no way for anyone to be 100% sure that bugs are related. The more bug reports we get, from as many people as possible, the better chance we have of tracking down a bug and fixing it. If someone says "when I click this button it crashes", that doesn't really help. But if we get 50 bug reports from a variety of users, on multiple operating systems, and they all explain the situation in a slightly different way, we might end up with enough clues to actually figure out what's wrong.
2. Bugs get lost on the forums, they get buried under pages and pages of opinions, feature requests, idle chit chat, and work arounds. The forums are designed so that our users can communicate with each other, so these things are perfectly fine to do on the forums. Bugs on the other hand... those need to be sent to our developers. If our developers spend all day looking through the forums, trying to figure out what is a feature request, and what is an actual bug, they'll never get anything done. Bug tracking software allows us to separate the diagnostic information that we need in order to fix an issue, from regular conversation. Again, we're not saying that you shouldn't communicate to each other about issues, we're just saying that if you have a bug, and you don't submit it through our bug tracking software, it makes it very difficult for our developers to efficiently resolve any issues.
3. We recieve support emails, support questions on the forums, bug submissions via email, bug submissiosn via the forums, how-to questions, feature requests, sales questions, general inqueries, and so on, all the time. The biggest problem is keeping track of everything. We have most things separated out. For instance, if you have a sales question, you're probably not going to ask it in a bug thread on the forum. Likewise, you're probably not going to ask our sales people about support questions. As we grow and expand, we need to make sure that information continues to flow through the proper channels. At this point, we have determined that having bugs listed in our forums, is just not working. Too many times, has a bug slipped through our fingers due to lack of information, or a bug being posted in some odd place on our forums, or for whatever other reason. We have spent months researching and then implementing a more efficient, and streamlined way to track bugs. We now have the solution, and it is in place.
Again, we're not trying to stop all of you from communicating with each other about issues, workarounds, etc. All we're asking, is if you find a bug, PLEASE submit it through the proper channels.
Thank You,
Devin Kendig
Developer
ASGvis LLC.
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