ArcGIS Pro could provide warning signs
ArcGIS Pro UI dialogs could provide a bug status indicator to give a user an idea of the road ahead.
- No UI dialog symbol: good to go. The happy path presented in the help documentation has not been shadowed by the wings of bugs as far as Esri is aware.
- Yellow “yield/exclamation mark” UI dialog symbol: click to bring up a listing* of bugs with established workarounds. Review the bugs and the workarounds that sound like they affect what you want to accomplish.
- Red “stop/x mark”: click to bring up a listing* of bugs with no established workarounds. Review the bugs that sound like they affect what you want to accomplish. Determine alternate path to success.
*Each bug listing entry includes an “I need this to work” button for the user to click to register their desire to have Esri make the product do what it says it does. This can be used by Esri for prioritization. Also, if the user is signed in to something Esri (ArcGIS Online, GeoNet, my.esri.com, etc.), they get access to the “internal” bug listing as well as the external bug listing, if such dichotomy exists.
It seems that most, if not all of the components to support this idea are available. Just a matter of linking up UI elements to the big box of uniquely identified and documented bugs. Existing symbols from the GP tools parameter field status indicator could be re-used as the UI dialog symbol. Yellow and / or red could be on at the same time.
Maybe go so far as to integrate the bug reporting process into the UI dialogs where the user can initiate a bug report at the point of suspected failure, let ArcGIS Pro gather its logs, let the user edit the log and submit it for support to review.
Benefits:
- ArcGIS Pro users have the information they need to meet their objectives, either along the happy path or along the less happy, but successful path.
- Big time saver for customers to have their expectations set early about using specific ArcGIS Pro functions. Clear information about situations so customers don’t blow time and money by spiraling down into troubleshooting.
- Clear picture of ArcGIS Pro quality levels to everyone involved.
- After some time and focus on quality, higher quality software and happier customers.
Costs:
- Full testing. You wouldn’t want your bug status indicator subsystem to be full of bugs.
Added capability to ArcGIS Pro – product manager, architect, developer, tester, etc.
Risks:
- Clear picture of ArcGIS Pro quality levels to everyone involved.
- Mitigation: fix the bugs and get rid of the yellow and reds = happier customers
- More complexity.
Example - Ok, so I need to get some geo-work done. I haven’t used these particular tools in ArcGIS Pro yet, so I go read the help, follow the guidance, click the “OK” button, and… not ok. Try again, investigate, research, fail, mess with GeoNet, spend time not getting any geo-work done. Example:
Related discussions and ideas for integration:
- https://community.esri.com/ideas/17722-streamline-bug-reporting
- https://community.esri.com/thread/245046-arcgis-pro-bug-reporting-wo-the-hassle
- https://community.esri.com/message/610584
- and many more, probably, but I'm not digging them up.
tim