When you use a piece of software there are undoubtedly times when you think to yourself, “It’s supposed to do X”, or more likely “It’s not supposed to do that.” So how do you qualify this behavior? Would you call it a defect? Would you say it’s a Feature Request? What if the developer says it’s functioning as designed? Maybe it will help to take a look at it this way…
You use SalesLogix to tracks widgets (what the heck is a ‘widget’, anyways?). There's a button that counts how many widgets are in the system. You know that there are 214 widgets, and verified that is what's in the raw data in the database. However, when you use the button in the software to get the count, it reports there are 189 widgets in the system.
è The designed behavior is different than the experienced behavior. This is a Defect in the software.
In your company, there absolutely must be two tokens to go with each widget. You can’t sell a widget without the two tokens, so it’s imperative that you know how many tokens are in the system. Therefore when you click the button to count the widgets, by default it needs to also display the number of tokens. Because it doesn’t display the number of tokens you consider this to be a product defect.
è The functionality to count tokens is not part of the software. This would be a Feature Request.
In your company, widget can be classified in two distinct categories, “Available” and “Sold Awaiting Delivery”. SalesLogix Architect allows you to add these categories and display them accordingly. Your business process requires that report on only those widgets that are Available. However, when you click the button to count the widgets, it counts every one that is in the system. Because this gives you an inaccurate picture of how many widgets you have available, you think this is a product defect.
è The count button is designed to count all widgets in the system and does not take into account whether a widget falls into a specific category or not. This is Functioning as Designed.
A key point to remember is that a Feature Request can include a request to change the design. So if you feel that something is designed poorly, incorrectly, or in such a way that produces inaccurate (or maybe unusable) results, by all means submit an idea to have it considered for a change. The best place to submit your ideas is right here, in the IdeaLogix forum.