Want your reported bug fixed? Report it as a suggestion?

MikeyC

I have had a number of conversations with Red Gate about the lack of bugs getting fixed in new SQL Prompt versions. The last one amazed me, here is a portion of the reply from Paul Stephenson:

Hi Michael,

The contents of SQL Prompt releases are primarily determined by three things:
• The highest priority bugs (based on number of user reports and severity).
• The highest-voted items on Uservoice, also taking into account how hard they are to do.
• Any strategic work for the product going forward (e.g. new ideas from within, support for additional versions of SQL Server).

I realise that this can be frustrating when issues like those below are annoying you every day – this is why we ask you to put things on Uservoice, so that others can say “Yes, that’s annoying for me too,” and we can see where we can provide the greatest impact across the whole user base.

So if you have reported a bug, had Red Gate confirm it, with a SP number, don't expected it to get fixed unless it causes SQL Prompt to crash.

If you want it fixed you have to report it on their Uservoice site, which they list is to be used for feature requests, and hope a bunch of people vote for it.

I replied to let him know that I thought that was unacceptable because that isn't what that site is being advertised to be used for and you only get 10 votes. I haven't heard back from him since.

I have reported over 25 bugs, but I can only vote for a maximum of 25 items on the Uservoice site, so I can't vote for all my own bugs, not to mention the features I would like to see added. (Though at this point I would like to see more bug fixes and fewer new features.)

As it is now most people probably search the forum, find that a bug has already been reported and confirmed by Red Gate and just wait for it to be fixed. Sometimes they might add a "me too" post. This may be why the bugs aren't getting fixed, Red Gate thinks that only a couple people care.

I would like to see Red Gate publish the list of confirmed bugs and make it easy for users to vote for them.

Don't get me wrong, I really like SQL Prompt, but as more and more bugs get added that aren't being fixed it is getting less and less useful.

How does everyone feel about how Red Gate is handling and fixing SQL Prompt bugs?

Luke Jefferson

Hi Michael,

We do take all bugs very seriously but please understand we have to prioritize everything we do. We try to rank bugs on their frequency, the number of people affected (which we monitor via a combination of our own error reporting software and JIRA) and their estimated severity.

We review high priority bugs every sprint, so about every two weeks, and allocate a portion of every sprint to tackling them. We tackled 15 user-reported bugs over the course of the SQL Prompt 5.1 release and we recently emailed the 227 SQL Prompt users who reported those bugs asking them to download a beta version for further testing. A bug that causes a crash for a large number of users has to take priority over an enhancement for a small number of users.

I agree we should try to improve the visibility of reported bugs and I’ll have a think about the best way to improve this situation going forward. Sharing all issues would be counterproductive as there are literally thousands of very particular and nuanced requests; there are several hundred formatting issues alone.

We are trying to improve the feedback process and believe this will eventually translate to a better product. We will soon be announcing a product blog where we hope to share more frequent builds: perhaps we could start by announcing the bugs that are going to be tackled?

The team introduced Uservoice to help users report, vote on and prioritize feature requests. We figured this was easier to manage, for both the team and SQL Prompt users, than having them scattered across forum posts. We have to prioritize everything we do and having our users help with the prioritization—by limiting the number of votes they have—really helps us figure out what to tackle next. It’s far from ideal but I believe it’s a step in the right direction.

In short, we try to do our very best for our users with the information we have and the resources available.

I’d be happy to chat about this and future plans for SQL Prompt.

All the best,

Luke Jefferson
Product Manager
Red Gate Software
E: luke.jefferson@red-gate.com

MikeyC

Luke Jefferson wrote:

We do take all bugs very seriously but please understand we have to prioritize everything we do. We try to rank bugs on their frequency, the number of people affected (which we monitor via a combination of our own error reporting software and JIRA) and their estimated severity.

I understand that things have to be prioritized, but with the current method when people find that a bug they experience has been reported and confirmed they may not bother reporting it, or even adding a "me too." post.

I agree we should try to improve the visibility of reported bugs and I’ll have a think about the best way to improve this situation going forward. Sharing all issues would be counterproductive as there are literally thousands of very particular and nuanced requests; there are several hundred formatting issues alone.

I don't see anything wrong with sharing everything, though it would be good if they could be grouped/categorized, or marked as related. You can look at the Microsoft Connect site as an example, they don't expose their entire bug database, but everything that users post is shared. And users only get one vote per bug/feature.

We will soon be announcing a product blog where we hope to share more frequent builds: perhaps we could start by announcing the bugs that are going to be tackled?

That would be nice.

The team introduced Uservoice to help users report, vote on and prioritize feature requests. We figured this was easier to manage, for both the team and SQL Prompt users, than having them scattered across forum posts. We have to prioritize everything we do and having our users help with the prioritization—by limiting the number of votes they have—really helps us figure out what to tackle next. It’s far from ideal but I believe it’s a step in the right direction.

I think the Uservoice site works OK for feature suggestions, but Paul pretty much said bugs should be put in as well. While limiting votes for new features isn't a bad idea, limiting the votes for bug isn't.

Note: I just noticed that the Uservoice site now allows 25 votes per user, which I think is more reasonable.