Taking command of issue triage
By Jason
Robbins, Google Project Hosting TeamFaster is better,
especially for tedious tasks. Even though software development can be creative and exciting,
it certainly has its share of tedious tasks. For example, that open source application library
you developed that got users so excited? Well, now it is generating dozens of defect reports
and enhancement requests for you and your teammates to sift through. Is your team growing? Are
you planning a major release? Is it time to finally clean up obsolete issues? It’s awesome to
be organized, but keeping up with all your issues can become tedious: click, click, click,
click, click.
Today we’re launching a new issue tracking feature that
allows quick edits in the issue preview window. It’s a happy medium between viewing one issue
in detail and doing a bulk edit. Unlike the familiar forms-based UX that we normally use,
quick edits are more command-like, keyboard-oriented, and emphasize the ability to repeat
recent commands.
Previewing issues works about 40% faster
than our normal issue detail page, so you can skim fast enough to achieve oneness with your
backlog, then punch in some quick edits to show it who’s boss. When you’re in the zone, that
click, click, click is replaced with something more like h, e, j, j, e, j, j, 2, e, j, e, j,
j, j, 1, e, done! Here’s your cheat sheet:
| Keystroke
| Action |
| h | Toggle
the issue preview window. |
| j or
k | Select the next or previous
issue. |
| f, n, p, l | Scroll to the
first, next, previous, or last comment in an
issue. |
| 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 | Select a
recent command. If you modify the command or comment, it will be stored in that numbered slot
for later reuse. |
| m | Focus on the
command text field. |
| e | Execute the
command and show the issue comment that it
generated. |
Not ready to go
all-keyboard? Just turn on the
user
preference for issue preview when mousing. Then, you can do your most common and
repetitive issue edits by just hovering over an ID number and clicking the Execute
button.
Jason Robbins founded the ArgoUML and ReadySET open source projects as a result of
his research into the cognitive challenges of software engineering tool UIs. He’s worked on
Google Project Hosting since 2005. Over the years he’s been a contestant, coach, and judge for
the ACM International Collegiate Programming
Contest.Posted by Scott Knaster,
Editor
