subject: Choosing An Issue Tracker? Read This First [print this page] During the process of a project, one of the key areas is the transparency and consistency across all aspects of the project and amongst all parties involved. One of the main blocks to this is the language and terminology that different parties give to different elements and processes, and in particular the terminology used by any PM software implemented.
So with this in mind, when you are choosing a flexible issue tracker, a key requirement should be that there is the functionality to allow terminology to be customised in order to match the terminology used by that particular organisation.
Obviously a large percentage of the project management software on the market uses the most universally used/commonly known terms for the different components, although this may not be the specific term your business usually uses, and so this is where you can run into problems.
An example which comes to mind is the way in which a project may become a product, or a module is referred to as a component when the issue tracker is used as part of a help desk or call centre setting.
But all is not lost just yet, as some project management software bears this issue in mind and are cleverly designed so that re-naming of the labels on-screen can be easily done by the end user, meaning they can make them identical to the terminology they usually use in their particular organisation. Software which is created this way could also be seen as more accessible as with the terms made unique to the business those with limited technical knowledge are already in the loop rather than needing to adapt to new phrases and anyone can open a file and amend to suit.
Easy peasy? Well nearly, but you do also need to think about what might happen if a new version of the software is released, as with a lot of software the labels cannot be migrated across meaning you have to waste time doing it all over again. However some software stores the terminology you have adapted in XML format, meaning it is friendly to other versions and even other programs and applications.
