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Do you work in a busy office environment where everybody relies on the same computer system? Whether you're a low level employee or whether you're trying to manage such an office, you're bound to have noticed that the same software problems keep cropping up. Bug tracking offers a streamlined way to deal with them.

Bug tracking is the process by which software developers and support staff receive feedback on problems with new software. Much bug tracking takes place in a professional environment before the software is released, but there's inevitably some bug tracking left for end users to take care of. Participating in this bug tracking helps to move the development process along and speed up the appearance of service patches and similar solutions. But bug tracking isn't just useful at the development end - by applying it in your office you can dramatically increase the efficiency of your local system.

All you require for local system bug tracking is a database in which you can store bug details and a standardised method for submitting bug tracking reports. This should include a description of what the bug did, a description of what caused it (including all activity on that machine immediately beforehand, plus a note of any other programs running at the same time) and an indication of how severe the problems caused by the bug were. Once everybody in the office is familiar with this, it will be easy for them to submit bug tracking reports whenever they encounter problems. The bug tracking project administrator can then add notes when solutions for problems are found, so that there's one clear set of instructions to refer to when things go wrong. Maintaining a local bug tracking system doesn't take much time, and the amount of time it can save you in managing problems in considerable.