A client has been evaluating various bug tracking software, and one of the packages, Mercury Quality Center, is written with many Active-X controls. Strangely enough they have a thesaurus button on the bug entry dialog. My co-contractor and friend Matt had the following to say:

Did you notice that the defect entry screen in mercury has a thesarus button?
Why do you need a thesarus when entering a defect… to find another meaning “the darn thing doesn’t work”?

I agree whole heartedly and want to know why someone would put a feature like that in a piece of software that requires clarity and precision for entering in bugs. Quality assurance means reproducing the bug, the developer fixing it, and then quality control confirming its fixed. A thesaurus is not needed for that processes.