Feedback and Resolutions
In a relatively recent blog entry, Walter Lounsbery mentions that he filed a bug on IE7 with Microsoft Connect. Although pleased with the fact that he got a pretty quick response, he expressed some concern that there wasn't much value being derived from "no-repro" bugs, even of the subtle variety.
We're still working on a few features to take Connect to the next level in terms of its utility to customers, but I can tell you that it's already doing quite a lot for the program managers and product groups within Microsoft. Tracking the statistics of bug resolution rates, open times, and other items are things that are either in place or being worked on.
Walter's comment: "Management must track the Microsoft Connect statistics closely" is spot on. We're not perfect in that regard yet, but we're getting better all the time. One thing many of our customers desire is the ability to re-open a bug once it's been resolved or closed by Microsoft. We actually support this right now, but it's not something all product betas want to take advantage of -yet- because of process and resource issues. We also need to improve this feature so the product teams can better integrate it into their bug management process.
One of the Connect team's self-appointed tasks is to help identify where Connect can help and to drive best practices for product teams here at Microsoft. Of course, in order to do that, sometimes we have to figure out exactly what those best practices are. Some of this is entirely new territory.
