Using FogBugz

Dryad uses FogBugz for internal task tracking. FogBugz serves as the primary management system for requests from Dryad's customers (authors, editors, data consumers, etc.)

NOTE: The software development schedule is captured on the Dryad Trello boards, primarily the Dryad Development board. FogBugz tickets can be assigned to developers for a quick response, but issues should be moved into Trello if they require more than a few minutes of effort. For more information on Trello, see Using Trello.

Priorities
Dryad assigns the following meanings to priorities:
 * 1 - Do it now, damnit: A critical problem that needs to be fixed today. (use sparingly)
 * 2 - Very high: This item absolutely must be addressed within two days.
 * 3 - High: This item must be addressed within a week.
 * 4 - Medium: This item should be addressed, but there is no rush.
 * 5 - Low: This item may be done if opportunity allows, but it is not a priority.
 * 6 - Not prioritized: A priority has not yet been assigned to this case. It should be prioritized as soon as possible.

Milestones, Tasks, and Sub-tasks
Although FogBugz supports the use of Milestones, we do not currently use them. Special milestones (which exist for historical purposes):
 * Undecided is the default milestone that FogBugz uses when a new task is created. Anything in this milestone needs to be sorted into a different milestone.
 * Someday is a catch-all milestone. It stores items that need to be done, but do not have high enough priority to be on the current schedule.

A task is a feature, bugfix, or activity that is required to meet a given milestone.
 * 1) A task may be broken down into subtasks, and the subtasks may be assigned to different people.
 * 2) If a task will take more than 2 days to complete, it should be broken down into subtasks.

User Accounts
Many Dryad staff members have individual accounts in FogBugz, so they may perform the activities listed above. There are "virtual" accounts for some staff and external contractors, which are used to organize task lists (but not for direct time tracking).

There are two special-purpose accounts:
 * Dryad Personnel is a virtual account that only sends notifications to Ryan. This is to help us keep track of tasks being performed by people who do not use Fogbugz directly.
 * Dryad Helpdesk is a virtual account that receives the cases from help@datadryad.org. It sends notifications to Ryan, Elena, Mercedes, and Dan. Tasks in this account need to be resolved quickly or assigned to another user.