From Backlog To Breakthrough: How FreeBSD and Bitergia Tackled 7k+ Bugs With Data-Driven Dashboards
summary
FreeBSD and Bitergia build GrimoireLab dashboards that analyze 30 years of Bugzilla history, define time-to-first-attention, and introduce unattended and abandoned categories to prioritize triage; the work flags patch‑ready and non‑reproducible reports, drives targeted bugathons, and moves the backlog from ~7,500 to about 5,800 open bugs. A Backlog Management Index shows when intake outpaces fixes, and technical work includes successfully running GrimoireLab on FreeBSD rather than relying on Docker.
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chapters (28)
- 0:00FreeBSD backlog cleanup
- 1:28Panelist introductions
- 3:17FreeBSD roles
- 6:11Bug backlog problem
- 9:43Goals for analysis
- 11:28Source management setup
- 13:53Backlog analysis findings
- 14:33Processing Bugzilla data
- 16:40Classifying bugs and community dynamics
- 17:01Backlog Management Index
- 17:23Bug attention time
- 19:08Bug squashing sprints
- 20:36Golden window for bugs
- 21:59Project results summary
- 22:20Deep dive into BMI
- 24:05Community-specific insights
- 25:09Q&A on metrics
- 26:17BMI graph interpretation
- 28:46Q&A on prioritization
- 29:07Bug impact assessment
- 30:31Q&A on duplicates
- 31:35Bug spikes and cycles
- 33:01Closing thoughts
- 34:26Community perspective
- 35:09Developer constraints
- 35:52Grimire Lab on FreeBSD
- 36:34Reporting requirements
- 37:40Project conclusion
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