InGeniusBlog.com

We are just starting a new project here at InGenius, and needed a way to import a ton of cases into FogBugz (our bug tracking system).

Here’s our project workflow for now:

• First, develop a fairly detailed spec, then break the spec down into detailed work items. The idea here is not to come up with a complete detailed design, but to come up with a pretty good spec of how the app should work, the flow, the things we want to see on screens etc.
• The work items usually end up in a table in Word, since it’s easiest to edit this way.
• We then involve all the developers who add detailed comments and add their estimates in hours.
• This Word table is imported into excel, saved as CSV, then we run this app to import into FB.
• In FB, each area has a default developer assigned, so the work gets assigned this way.
• Once in FB, I select ‘em all, convert to Features and schedule items where appropriate.
• And we fine-tune the work assignments to balance the workload among developers.

The flow seems clunky, but it preserves the ease of editing and group sharing and input for as long
as possible, then it’s into FB, where it’s actually DONE.

So, based on one of the example apps that comes with FogBugz, we built a quick little CSV importer which makes it pretty easy to populate the cases for a project.

This work is in the public domain. Go ahead and modify and improve. Please send me a copy of your improvements!

Known Issues:
No error checking. VERY little testing. Basically, it worked once for me, and I’m happy.
WARNING: This app is a thrown-together hack done in about 10 minutes. It worked for me the one time I used it.

The columns in the excel spreadsheet I used are:
The Project,Area,Title,Description,Hours

Expects a file in EXACTLY this format:
Iceberg,Dev Items,test,Description of the ‘Item’,10
Iceberg,Dev Items,test2,22222,20
Iceberg,Dev Items,test3,”333′ ‘3′3 ‘3′”" “” 3rd Item, that I think is cool”,30

I think that project and area should match exactly the definitions in the FB database.Note: Saving as CSV in excel will automatically escape any embedded “’s as shown below. Nice.

So, with that preamble, HERE’s the app, and .Net project. I hope you find it useful!