[Solved] Request for collaboration: Creating a visual flow chart for reporting bugs

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triplus
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Re: Request for collaboration: Creating a visual flow chart for reporting bugs

Post by triplus »

Kunda1 wrote:honestly, charts are not my strong suite
Welcome to the club. ;)
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Something like that would do it for me. After i guess somebody would put a few days of work in it to figure out all the remaining details.
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sgrogan
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Re: Request for collaboration: Creating a visual flow chart for reporting bugs

Post by sgrogan »

triplus wrote:Welcome to the club. ;)
Good cut and paste though. Good point on your markup, if you know it's been reported you got the info from somewhere. ;)
This has been a good exercise so far. dia is un-intuitive for me, so I've reported several obvious bugs, taking care not to report my version and where I got it from.
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chrisb
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Re: Request for collaboration: Creating a visual flow chart for reporting bugs

Post by chrisb »

I have created a Business Process Modeling Notation diagram (I used Bizagi which is free but not open software :roll: ). It has the advantage of different roles in the model.
- Green circle: start
- Red circle: stop
- The circled arrow in the "Discuss" task means that the task is performed repeatedly.

The model contains some simplifications like the standalone creation of a new forum thread. Changing this would make the process complicated and rather unclear.

I included a task "simplify model" which I think is absolutely necessary. It is much easier to find, eliminate and verify a bug if it is not hidden somewhere in a very complicated model. I am not sure if this should happen before or after the forum discussion. It has to happen definitely before the creation of a bug report.
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triplus
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Re: Request for collaboration: Creating a visual flow chart for reporting bugs

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The Style has improved but i don't like the fact we need to have watermark of some software at the bottom? Not a big problem but i do see room for improvement here.

As for the flow. You included 2 new categories in the chart. And once done the chart will likely become too complex to be useful to an average issue reporter. As this is what we are after? Horizontal approach could end up being useful if used as a header image on bug tracker at some point in the future. As for having special simplify entry mentioned in the flow. To signal this is more important step compared to some other ones. I don't feel that is needed and we shouldn't bother the reporter with endless demands. Like some rocket science stuff is involved in the process.
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bejant
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Re: Request for collaboration: Creating a visual flow chart for reporting bugs

Post by bejant »

"Error" and "no error" might be ambiguous as it doesn't describe where the error occurs. My suggestion for change of words:
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chrisb
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Re: Request for collaboration: Creating a visual flow chart for reporting bugs

Post by chrisb »

triplus wrote:The Style has improved but i don't like the fact we need to have watermark of some software at the bottom? Not a big problem but i do see room for improvement here.
You are right, It can't be switched off and I didn't bother to take my gimp out. I will edit the post above.
Edit: attached images cannot be edited.
As for the flow. You included 2 new categories in the chart. And once done the chart will likely become too complex to be useful to an average issue reporter. As this is what we are after? Horizontal approach could end up being useful if used as a header image on bug tracker at some point in the future.
All these charts are very space consuming which is another good reason to not making them too complex.
As for having special simplify entry mentioned in the flow. To signal this is more important step compared to some other ones. I don't feel that is needed and we shouldn't bother the reporter with endless demands. Like some rocket science stuff is involved in the process.
Would you mind if I put it in the list of what to attach to the bug report? (I'm still trying to not have it centered).
bejant wrote:"Error" and "no error" might be ambiguous as it doesn't describe where the error occurs.
Now that I think about it that is a very difficult one. We can have at this exit (at least):
- user error
- occ kernel problem
- other third party problem, e.g. with importing non conformant models
So I would rather leave it blank or replace it with a general "error not to be reported".
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triplus
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Re: Request for collaboration: Creating a visual flow chart for reporting bugs

Post by triplus »

Possible bug is detected. User should search the issue tracker and the forum if it was already reported. If yes update the report with some new information or open forum thread and discuss it. And that short list of how to best describe the detected problem for making other users life a bit easier.

Anything beyond that is in my opinion over doing it and users just won't understand the flow and won't put too much effort in it to decode what it is trying to say. Compact and horizontal approach with using some nice style as in your example works for me. Who knows maybe it could be used as a banner on issue tracker in the future. And if it would work similar solution could be investigated at the top of Help on using FreeCAD forum section. Compared to now when we have a text banner and we redirect the user to somewhere else and ask them to read a plethora of text. And after wonder why some don't bother doing that. ;)
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Kunda1
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Re: Request for collaboration: Creating a visual flow chart for reporting bugs

Post by Kunda1 »

triplus wrote: Who knows maybe it could be used as a banner on issue tracker in the future.
An similar example but not 100% related to this topic, see how the OCC tracker displays their bug cycle workflow:
OCC-tracker-flowchart.png
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Maybe we can make a header that is collapsible in the tracker that would display whatever chart we decide 'makes the cut' ?
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triplus
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Re: Request for collaboration: Creating a visual flow chart for reporting bugs

Post by triplus »

Yes something like that. But note that is a different effort and it is not directly related to the one in this thread. We are still after the final result in this thread.

Result we could consider to be a stylish and simple to understand flow chart giving basic information on how an average user should/could attempt to report a bug. That goal wasn't achieved yet.
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sgrogan
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Re: Request for collaboration: Creating a visual flow chart for reporting bugs

Post by sgrogan »

triplus wrote:Yes something like that. But note that is a different effort and it is not directly related to the one in this thread. We are still after the final result in this thread.

Result we could consider to be a stylish and simple to understand flow chart giving basic information on how an average user should/could attempt to report a bug. That goal wasn't achieved yet.
I agree with triplus. I think we are trying to do two things at once.
1) Provide a simple flow chart for a new/average user to deal with a bug/potential bug. I think this boils down to "Please treat bugs as help requests" We want the same information in the same format.
2) A more complete flow chart to triage and report the bug. The audience here is the more experienced user. "So, you'd like to help FreeCAD. Become a tester/bug triager"

IMHO the the work here viewtopic.php?f=8&t=20396 is a precursor/pre-requisite to this thread.
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