Need assistance architecting, designing a system to help developers report common error messages in software applications.
1. we have 10 developers, some working on software A and software B while others working on software X and Y.
2. At the same time, a couple others working on AX and AY.
I found that commom software problems or bug are not alwas reported correctly, even when the issue is related or is a side effect.
This occurs because each developer is allowed to describe his/her own error messages independently. This could become confusing to users when problem A is caused by problem B, but the errors are not related in anyway.
A solution (I think) is to categorized and database commom errors messages, including error codes. Developers can simply reference the errors rather than using their own words to describe messages in popup boxes.
Example, errors in UI, if user click on |File - Open| and file is missing
Developer 1, reports "File Missing", developer 2, reports "File cannot be found"
both correct but inconsistent
A majority of our developers are bilangual and occasionlly dont use the correct English to describe messages in dialog boxes to users.
Example:
A user clicks on "Create" button. When the process is complete, the popup box says "Done". That message is not configurable and is not the correct technical error message for a user.
The developer is smart but I would preffer that he reference error codes from a table - where the correct message would be returned.
Another example: Every time microsoft system updates fails, you get an error code. That code is databased and reported when the same or a similar error occur.
Of course the database would grow overtime and solutions to solving the problem would be documented and knowledged based.
Has anyone implemented or documented a similar system?
And of course, before I can ask developers to do this, I need to demo to them the advantages of implementing such a system. (see additional details section)
## Deliverables
I am looking for help from someone who has implemented a similar system, and can provide some documentation, demo on design, architecture and technology needed to make this happen. My developers can implement the system, I just need to present the idea and best way to go about it.
In a high level, I am seeking documentation on best approach (architech, design, database, flocharts..etc) for implementing such a system