Changes to issue assignment

Automatic assignment prior to May 2013

Previously, the Moodle Tracker system required each component to have an automatic assignee. This meant that each reported issue was assigned to a real developer or to an artificial user. While this did allow issues to have someone's eyes on them when they were reported, it did have some downsides.

• Having a developer assigned to an issue gave an impression that someone was working on the issue. Most of the time, developers are working on only a small number of bugs in the tracker, so this was potentially sending a false message.
• If an issue already has an assignee, potential developers may be reluctant to volunteer to resolve an issue. It was desirable to encourage developers to be involved in resolving issues without impediments.

The new approach

Issues are no longer automatically assigned to developers as they are reported. Developers should only assign an issue to themselves when they have a definite intention to complete the issue.

Some components are automatically watched by users and most newly created issues are triaged.

In order to create a truer representation of issues and allow other developers to become involved, developers assigned to issues have the option to unassign themselves if they have no intention on working on the issue immediately. When doing so, they may use the following statement.

This issue was assigned to me automatically, however I will not be able to work on this issue in the immediate future. In order to create a truer sense of the state of this issue and to allow other developers to have chance to become involved, I am removing myself as the assignee of this issue.

For more information, see https://docs.moodle.org/dev/Changes_to_issue_assignment