What is issue tracking?

Last updated: September 2024

Issue tracking is the process of managing software bugs that users encounter when interacting with a product. An issue, then, refers to a code error that creates problem for the user. For example, this might be a broken button, authentication issue, or unintended user experience.

But issue tracking involves more than just keeping a running list of defects. Many agile development teams include highly relevant information about technical debt, refactoring, and other suggestions in their list of issues. If you keep track of both urgent fixes and opportunities to improve the product in a single place, it becomes easier to prioritize how you will improve the overall user experience — one issue at a time.

A great agile team needs the right issue-tracking tools — try Aha! Develop.

So where do issues come from? Many product development teams identify issues via customer feedback. (In other words, when a user reaches out for help with a specific problem or error message.) Issues like these can come from a variety of sources, from tickets the customer support team creates to social media messages from users. If your company has a robust idea management system in place, issues can also come directly from users via ideas portals, in-app community feedback, or empathy sessions.

But it is also useful to find (and resolve) issues before they reach customers in the first place. Debugging, QA testing, and beta releases are all opportunities for the development team to spot problems. Of course, you should also be vigilant about looking for bugs or code weaknesses at all stages of the agile product development process. If you are able to quickly ship code changes at any time, you can continuously release improvements to customers. After all, the ultimate goal of issue tracking is to iteratively improve the user experience and deliver a product that customers love.

Let's explore this concept a bit further. Use the links below to jump ahead to any section:

What is an issue-tracking system?
Why do you need an issue-tracking system?
What features should you look for in an issue-tracking tool?
Get started with an issue-tracking tool

What is an issue-tracking system?

An issue-tracking system is an application or tool that helps development teams manage and address issues. Popular issue-tracking tools typically support agile methodologies — such as the Scaled Agile Framework® and The Aha! Framework for product development — as well as project management capabilities. They are one of many tools that exist to help teams stay aligned and collaborate faster throughout the product development process. Some teams choose to organize or sort issues into different levels, such as epics, user stories, and subtasks.

A kanban-style workflow board in Aha! Develop for a frontend web team

This is an example of a workflow board in Aha! Develop. Issues have a "Bug fix" label, and user stories display in columns that reflect their status. The engineering team can clearly see technical issues to address alongside new work to complete.

Although developers are ultimately responsible for tracking and fixing errors in the code, issue tracking is vital to the entire product development team. Everyone from product and project management to product marketing and operations relies on you to create and refine a product that delights customers. Depending on the structure of your organization and the type of issue that needs fixing, other groups (such as customer support or design) might also need to be involved in identifying and rectifying the issue.

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Why do you need an issue-tracking system?

Great developers know that some of the smallest and seemingly mundane tasks can have the biggest impact.
Dr. Chris Waters
Aha! co-founder and CTO

Software development is dynamic and collaborative work. Changing one part of the code often impacts how other parts of the software function — which is why bugs, issues, and defects tend to multiply over time. An issue-tracking system provides teams with a framework for managing and organizing the development work that must be done to improve the product and address customer needs.

Using a strong issue-tracking system allows you to capture, organize, manage, and fix issues from discovery to resolution. Even though developers usually log issues related to technical debt and refactoring, folks from product management, QA, or support typically log bugs. Product managers usually push work related to the product roadmap over to the engineering team's issue tracker as well.

Here are some of the main benefits for agile development teams that use an issue-tracking system:

Alignment
Collaboration
Efficiency
Transparency
Visibility

In short, fixing bugs quickly and addressing customer feedback make for a better product and user experience. This can lead to greater customer trust and loyalty. When users are not frustrated by error messages and broken links, they can actually enjoy the entire experience of using your product.

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What features should you look for in an issue-tracking tool?

The features you need will depend on how your company and development team operate (for example, which agile methodologies or product development framework you use and how the team collaborates). Most companies opt for a cloud-based tool that updates in real time and includes a comprehensive view of all the present and future bugs you need to fix. The ability to search for a specific issue, escalate it based on shifting priorities, link related issues, and track the time until resolution are also popular functionality for issue trackers.

No matter what your specific situation is, you will likely benefit from using an issue-tracking tool that contains the following features:

Feature	Benefit
Automation	By assigning automation rules within the issue tracker, you save time and cut down on manual or repetitive tasks in your workflows.
Centralization	A single view of all the issues — whether reported by customers or discovered by internal teams — is vital for knowing what you need to fix.
Customization	Issues are not very useful without accompanying details. Look for an issue-tracking system that lets you add information such as status, tags, and comments to each issue. You will likely also want the ability to customize workflows, assign tasks, and filter data.
Integrations	Software development happens across multiple tools. Your issue tracker should be able to easily integrate with the third-party development, customer service, or communication apps your company already uses.
Prioritization	The team should be able to quickly identify issues that are in progress, completed, or coming next. Your issue tracker should make it obvious which issues are most urgent and which can wait for the next sprint. You will also want the ability to track estimated time against team capacity so you can better plan your sprints.
Reporting	You are constantly improving your processes, and your issue-tracking tool should help you accomplish this. Find an issue tracker that makes it easy to create dashboards and reports. This will allow you to better measure your efficiency and improve your output going forward.

These features are a great starting point. The problem, however, is that issue-tracking tools that include all the functionality above are often cumbersome to use. Many development teams find it challenging to balance competing needs when different types of work are lumped together in a single stream. For example, if product work dominates the list, defects tend to pile up — resulting in product quality issues. Or if your list of issues focuses on maintenance, new features languish and the team might not meet product goals.

When there are a large number of product issues, it can mean that tickets get overlooked, forgotten, or unintentionally duplicated. And developers using overly complex issue trackers run the risk of alienating their cross-functional colleagues. For instance, executives and business operations folks might be reticent to go into the issue tracker to try to understand the status of ongoing development work.

You need a purpose-built tool that is visible to everyone and facilitates close collaboration. This is why development teams benefit from using a tool like Aha! Develop. You can include everything you need in a single streamlined app that is easily accessible and understandable to everyone.

This close-up view of an issue in Aha! Develop shows details such as the team responsible for addressing the issue and an estimate of how long it will take.

If you are not yet ready for a fully extendable tool like Aha! Develop, keep in mind that Aha! Roadmaps easily integrates with other popular issue-tracking and ticketing software.

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Get started with an issue-tracking tool

Staying on top of problems and promptly resolving bugs leads to higher customer happiness. A strong issue-tracking tool is essential to achieving this. No matter which tool you use, successful issue tracking requires buy-in and participation from the entire development team. Everyone must commit to using the tool correctly, consistently, and over a sustained period of time.

Many development teams use Aha! Develop to prioritize their backlog, coordinate and estimate work, track issues, and conduct sprint. Having all of the development work in a single tool makes it easy to collaborate and build quickly. You can also integrate Aha! Develop with Aha! Roadmaps — so everyone on the product development team has the information they need to build lovable products.

Plus, Aha! Knowledge is included with Aha! Roadmaps. And it includes more than 100 templates to help you be more efficient throughout product development. For example, you can use the change log template to keep notes on how and when issues are addressed, promoting greater transparency in an easily accessible format.