Mantis is a Great Bug Tracking Tool

Posted on October 16, 2011 by Alfredo Scaini

So we’ve all been there. You build a web app and send it for quality assurance (QA) testing and it comes back with a load of bugs.

Great, now you’ve got to fix the bugs before you can go forward. But the question is how do you track what’s been fixed, what’s been confirmed as fixed and what is really a bug and not a change request?

Enter Mantis

Mantis is a PHP/MySQL bug tracking tool that allows both you and the QA tester to better manage bugs found in the system. Way more easier than trying to track down emails, run through an Excel file, or mess around with a Word document, Mantis allows you to track bugs one bug at a time; the benefit of which is that you can more easily manage bugs to ensure that they’ve been fixed.

Before we started using Mantis I can’t tell you how many times we messed up because we missed fixing some bugs; or, things got so hectic that a couple change requests got reported as bugs and were implemented without us getting paid for them.

Ouch.

Mantis is built in PHP and uses a MySQL database to help track the progression of a bug fix. The system is easy to install and use right off the bat. Once installed, you simply create some accounts (for developers, QA testers … even clients if you’re adventurous) and some projects where bugs can be assigned to. From there on in the process is as simple as logging into Mantis entering your bug and getting the developer to fix it.

So, Do I Have to Log in Every Day to Check?

That’s one of the gems with Mantis. By default, Mantis will notify you by email when a bug is assigned to you. You have the option to turn this notification off, but I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s a lot easier to forget about a previous project when you’re working on the next unless you get an email reminder that there are bugs to fix.