It has happened in our team that our issue-tracker is down. Happens about once a week now (yes, wow), and there's not really much we can do to get it back up, since it's hosted by our client in a different timezone. It sometimes takes several hours for it to be operative again.In the meanwhile, we can't really tell which issues we were working on, and in case we do, we cannot update those issues, as in moving them through the workflow, logging used hours, checking the issue's description, leaving comments, and so on.So the question is: how can we, as a team, work in the meanwhile so that when the issue-tracker is up again, we have the least possible hassle updating it with what we've been working?
What to do when issue-tracker is down?
issue tracking;downtime
Use a Local CacheMight not work for yours, but it might be looking at whether it's a viable route to look at. Maybe you can implement a local proxy/cache for this tracker.We used to have an SVN proxy to prevent similar issue at a company I worked for.As pointed out in comments, you could use a local tracker. For instance Fossil is a decent tool for personal management.Good Ol' Whiteboard & PaperJust keep track of what you do one way or another and update. Nothing much more you can do.Hybrid Cache-Whiteboard :)That's a not-so-serious option, but it might work none-the-less: implement a simple facade that will screenshot the current task list and have that projected on a wall or displayed on a screen. if the remote one is down, at least you sort of still have a list.But I'm half-joking with that one...SCM-ed TODOHere's another half-baked idea: have a scheduled job export a list of tasks every N hours or so to a text file, and commit them to your SCM.Then have developers track their daily updates in a separate file named after the ID of ticket they work on.That's also not so great, but it might be better than nothing.Report and ComplainObviously that's an issue that needs to be addressed, and your client needs to be made aware of the impact it has on you and your team.