[lug] Request/bug tracking systems--suggestions for small team

[Michael J. Hammel]

On Sat, 2008-02-16 at 07:19 -0700, Jeffrey Haemer wrote:
> For a while, we had a developer who insisted CVS and SVN were probably
> good for casual use, but they couldn't do more sophisticated things,
> like branching.   We just *had*, he told my boss, to adopt the really
> good system he'd used at his last job: ClearCase.  He moved on to
> another company, where he's probably happier.

OMG, you musta worked for the same bonehead I did.  He came in when his
litle entourage was bought out by our parent company.  They insisted we
move from CVS to Clearcase.  I said, "Ok.  It's not that big a deal.
But *why* is it better than what we have now?  What isn't working right
now or wasn't working before you came along or can't work in the future
that requires the switch to Clearcase?"  No answer.  Ever.  It was
simply a decree (which came about 8 months before they shuttered the
place, not unsuprisingly).  We butted heads a lot after that.  Really,
really hard.

> My advice?  Find a tool you like and that does a reasonable job
> solving your problems.  Get comfy with it and use it until you have a
> compelling reason to switch.  But don't freak when you do switch and
> things work differently at first.  Listen to folks who are passionate
> about their tools, but don't assume they're right if they say, "You
> can't possibly do X with Y."  Even when that person is yourself.

Excellent advice.  I don't really care which tool I use as long as any
switch I'm required to make has a good reason for the switch.  If what
I'm using now is working and no one can tell me why it won't work in the
future, I see no reason to invest the time learning new tools I could
otherwise be using to do development or (as is the case for a number of
projects right now) architecting.  But if there is a compelling reason,
it's part of my job - the life I've chosen - to learn something new.
But I need to understand the reasons for doing things.  

> But ClearCase?  Eeeeeew. :-)

Yeah.  Still can't see a compelling case for this one.  Not for the size
of projects I tend to work on.

-- 
Michael J. Hammel                               Ximba End User Software
mjhammel at graphics-muse.org                      http://www.ximba.org
LFS UserID: 16857
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