Bug Triage

Last updated: 2013/07/18

Bugmasters

Mozilla bugmasters manage bugs. We investigate incoming bugs to ensure their information is correct. We also work to add information to confirm and replicate them. Improving meta-information on bugs readies them for developers to fix. We work as a community with each other, with bug reporters, with the quality assurance (QA) team, and with developers to improve the flow of information in bugzilla.mozilla.org.

Managing bugs, including triaging, is done at many stages throughout the bug life cycle. Our job is to make sure bugs move from one part of their life cycle to the next. Here are some of the specific tasks of bugmastering:

  • Early triage on incoming bugs to sort out support requests and non-actionable bug reports.
  • Closing out very old bugs to improve Bugzilla's signal to noise ratio.
  • Replicating and confirming bugs; changing their status from UNCONFIRMED to NEW.
  • Determining the correct product and component for an untriaged bug.
  • Marking bugs as duplicates of existing, better documented issues.
  • Creating a reduced testcase for a bug.
  • Regression testing with mozregression to narrow or pinpoint when the bug first appeared.
  • Pinning down information for crash bugs.
  • Working with user advocacy and developers to bring neglected, but important, bugs to light.
  • Catching high priority bugs that may block future releases.

Projects

To contribute, take a look at the project list  on the **Bug Wrangling Projects** page  and at the Bugmaster Guide!

Meetings

If you are interested in managing bugs, please join us for the regular bugmaster meetings every other Thursday at 9:30 AM pacific.

Communication and Contributions

Get in touch with us. Don't hesitate to communicate using:

Start to contribute

Bug days

  • Bug days: Every Tuesday on #bugmasters beginning on Feb. 26th. This is a great place to start. Drop by on IRC and you can help manage bugs with us in real time. New contributors very welcome!

Useful Links