Re: Three core pillars
I do agree with Codice Software/ Software development has three core pillars:
- issue tracking with is a general term for defect tracking, task management, etc.
- version control, and in particular source control management
- test management and automation
Probably, I would also add continuous integration.
Unfortunately there are actually few tools that cover everything.
- Trac nicely integrates source control with issue management (for free). So does JIRA (at a fair price). Codice Software seems more integrated, à la Microsoft Team Server. I have also seen a very innovating approach: is an issue tracker inside subversion.
- Bu they don’t manage test plans. Mercury Test Director handles this, and has a (poor) issue tracker, as well. But it is really expensive and has a very poor interface — which makes it very difficult to integrate with another issue tracker or simply with a SCM. Well it is more « user oriented »