What could be done to improve the OM development process?

[tim]

Holger Freyther wrote:
> yeah, this is work in progress. Stuff like two bug trackers, controlling some 
> more fields.. and various other things float through my head and I have to 
> organize this first. Other entities fix that by shielding developers and 
> putting 1st line support there acting as a multiplexers... but I think 
> reaching developers directly can be valuable..
>   
I second Norbert Hartl on this one.
"Having two different tools raises complexity and lowers collaborative 
work. And what do you get from it?"

As a dev who works with bugzilla internally and with clients, any plans 
to separate the devs from the users put a chill through me. I wouldn't 
advise trying separate work in to two bug trackers as you lose the value 
in the crossover, and a good bug tracker makes it easy to sift out the 
important information. In my experience as a dev, any kind of first line 
support ends up filtering out most of the useful information and can't 
actually provide high quality answers to technical users. This results 
in worse software for the user and ironically more support requests. For 
everything except phone support, direct contact with the devs is far 
superior.

An idea I came across recently that seems like a good idea is a hybrid 
approach, where the devs passively observe /all/ traffic from users 
(irc, mailing lists, support mailboxes, bug trackers etc), and can pick 
out bits that are useful, and then there are additional people paid to 
respond to all the rtfm type questions. That way you get the best of 
both worlds. The techies don't have the most valuable information lost 
in translation, and the more demanding users get the support they desire 
without wasting valuable coding time.

Tim Abell
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