Question

I'm not currently having our QA testers track time in FogBugz out of the fear that it will throw off EBS, but I hate this. Is my fear well-placed, or totally unfounded? We're a professional services company, so this is certainly a point that effects us quite directly. Please advise.

Here's the workflow we have today for stories:

Active

• 1. Not Started [Default status for active cases] <-- Assigned to developer
• 2. In Progress <-- No assignment change
• 3. Ready for QA on Staging <-- Assigned to QA tester
• 4. Verified by QA on Staging <-- Assigned to project manager (AM)
• 5. Ready for Client UAT <-- Assigned to account manager
• 6. Ready for Production <-- Assigned back to developer for deployment

Resolved

• Resolved (Verified on Production) [Default status for resolved cases] <-- Assigned back to PM
• No Action (Already Implemented) <-- Assigned back to case opener
• No Action (Duplicate) [Duplicate case status] <-- Assigned back to case opener
• Out of Scope (Works as Designed) <-- Assigned back to case opener

Answer 1

Do you want to get meaningful EBS reports including testing activities, or do you just want to get timesheet information about your test team?

I don't think EBS can give you a useful report in your above workflow, as the time won't be allocated to the tester until it has been assigned to them. I think you'll need to cook something up by using a new case type to represent testing activity, perhaps in a dependent milestone (to represent the fact that testers must wait for developers work to be "Ready for QA on Staging").