By Glue Team
Your ticket system is full of missing information.
A ticket says: "Optimize the checkout flow." What does that mean? Who knows? The engineer who created the ticket knows. The engineer who reviews it guesses.
A ticket says: "Fix the notification bug." What notification system? iOS? Email? Which bug exactly? It's all in someone's head.
Most ticket systems are missing the one piece of information that matters: context.
The Context Problem
Context is:
- Why are we building this? (The business reason)
- How does it fit in our product? (Which systems touch it?)
- What's the risk? (What could go wrong?)
- What's already been tried? (Did we build something similar?)
- Where in the codebase does this live? (Which files?)
Without context, engineers rework things. They rebuild what's already built. They miss constraints. They introduce bugs.
With context, work gets done 30-50% faster.
Why Tickets Miss Context
1. It's not required. Ticket systems don't force context. You can create a ticket with one sentence. It ships without explanation.
2. It's tedious. Adding context is work. You have to think about the edge cases, the architectural implications, the prior art. Easier to just write the feature description and move on.
3. Context is scattered. The context lives in design docs, code comments, Slack conversations, previous tickets. To gather it, you'd have to search 5 different places.
4. It gets stale. You write context in March. By October, the codebase has evolved. The context is outdated. Now you can't trust it.
What Context Should Tickets Have
1. The Business Why
Why are we building this? What problem does it solve?
"Optimize checkout flow" is not why. "Customer conversion drops 5% on checkout, costing us $50K/month. Optimization should improve by 2%." That's why.
With the why, engineers understand impact. They prioritize. They know when good-enough is good enough.
2. The System Impact
What systems does this touch?
"Payment service, User service, Analytics service." Now the engineer knows: this involves three teams. Plan accordingly.
Or: "Isolated to Email service." Now the engineer knows: low risk, no coordination needed.
3. The Constraints
What's not negotiable?
"Must support Stripe and Square. Cannot change database schema. Must not break existing integrations."
These constraints define the solution space. Without them, engineers solve the wrong problem.
4. The Prior Art
Have we solved this before?
"See Feature X (completed Q2). Similar architecture. Reuse the pattern."
Or: "Don't repeat the same mistake as Feature Y. That went three weeks over because of integration complexity."
With prior art, you avoid repeating mistakes.
5. The Acceptance Criteria
How do we know it's done?
"Performance test shows 50% improvement. Stripe integration handles 10K transactions/second. No regressions in existing flows."
Without criteria, done is subjective. "Is this good enough?" becomes a discussion instead of a measurement.
6. The Code Location
Where in the codebase does this live?
"Primarily in /app/services/payment_service. Also touches /app/models/order."
Now the engineer can find relevant code without hunting.
How To Fix Ticket Context
1. Have a Ticket Template
Don't let people write free-form tickets. Use a template:
- Business Why (1-2 sentences)
- Systems Impacted (list)
- Constraints (list)
- Prior Art (link to similar work)
- Acceptance Criteria (measurable)
- Estimated Complexity (small/medium/large)
Forced structure improves quality.
2. Make Ticket Creation a Meeting
For complex work, don't write tickets solo. Have the PM, an engineer, and a tech lead discuss it. Write the ticket during the discussion.
During discussion, context emerges. "Wait, this touches payment? We'll need to coordinate with the payments team." Now you know. It's in the ticket.
3. Link to Codebase Intelligently
Not just file names. Smart links that show the code.
Ticket says: "Payment service integration." Ideally, the ticket automatically includes a link to the payment service code, shows recent changes, shows test coverage.
Glue can provide this. Instead of manually linking to code, Glue extracts the relevant code automatically.
4. Link to Related Work
Don't make engineers search for prior art.
Ticket says: "Similar to Feature X (TICKET-234). See code changes." with a link.
Now the engineer can understand the pattern immediately.
5. Update Tickets During Work
Context changes. As you work, you discover new constraints. Update the ticket. "Turns out we need to update schema. This will take 1 extra week."
Now leadership knows. Expectations are set. No surprises.
The Real Payoff
When tickets have context:
- Work starts faster (no research phase)
- Work is more accurate (no missed constraints)
- Work is integrated better (knowledge of prior art)
- Communication is clearer (why matters)
- Planning is better (you understand complexity upfront)
Why This Matters
Your tickets are your source of truth. If they're missing context, your team operates on incomplete information. Engineers rework. Leaders make decisions based on guesses. Projects slip.
With context in tickets, your team moves 30-50% faster. The ROI on clear tickets is huge.
With Glue
With Glue, you can automatically populate ticket context: what code does this touch? What systems are impacted? What's the current architecture? What test coverage exists?
Instead of manually gathering context, Glue provides it. You focus on business why and acceptance criteria. Glue provides the technical context.
Frequently Asked Questions
Won't better tickets slow us down? No. They slow ticket creation but speed up work. A 10-minute ticket saves 2 hours of work investigation. Net gain.
Who should write the context? The person who requested the work. Usually PM or product lead. Engineers review and add technical context.
What if context is incomplete when we start? That's okay. Tickets can be refined during kickoff. But at minimum, start with clear why and constraints.