It is often difficult to formulate the correct enquiry to ascertain if a report or request has already been filed. In many instances, the user will know what menu choice was taken when the bug manifested itself and even an experienced user who will use keyboard shortcuts would be able to search help and quickly find the appropriate menu item. Would it be conceivable to provide a reference link alongside the menu choice or even in a non-functioning reference menu system here at bug central, in order that a user could simply identify the reference link and all reports associated with that specific link - by your triage team - could then be presented for consideration. The user could then more easily eliminate any duplication (s)he is about to create. The provision of a direct link to the specific function would probably complement existing version control procedures whereby you will already be ensuring the appropriate modules are assigned to the relevant coders and subsequently update the correct release(s). It might also facilitate a faster solution as newer reports can more easily be "pushed" to those currently engaged in the existing tasks. Don't misunderstand, I'm not implying the existing system could be inefficient. Eliminating much of the effort required to remove dross from the system can only help to streamline the response. Obviously, this is a very simplistic summation and all your existing management, prioritisation and integration of reports would still need to be fully considered. My primary intention was to identify that it could be easier to eliminate waste if the user had a better perception of the existing issues related to what is about to be reported.
We had a fairly robust guided Bug Submission Assistant geared toward users with out a grasp of the BZ structure, but it was unmaintainable. A simple template guided BZ submission was implemented. Some additional annotation to the BZ menus would be helpful--but there is only so much that can be done to assist the users in their submissions. Meanwhile, the QA triage team does a pretty good job of identifying unintentional duplicates in new reports the key being the quality / completeness of the BZ submission. Even if it is a duplicate, a good report is appreciated.