Track issues in user stories and not just packages

The problem

Taken individually, packages can be bug-free and work as advertised. However, using them as parts of some important workflow could be hard or painful, as they may have conflicting dependencies, or require contrieved glues and workarounds to assemble into a solution.

Actual situation

Currently Debian has no way of representing, and having process around, something like a supported use case. And yet installing Debian is a means to an end, and not an end in itself.

We have some approximations:

• tasksel tracks package selection around a limited broadly defined set of use cases
• blends address domain-specific communities
• some packaging teams like debian-games are built around broad use cases
• wiki pages like "Using Debian to do $FOO" sometimes exist that provide walkthrough and other kinds of documentation around specific use cases
• bts usertags can be used to track issues that affect cross-package concepts

We have no way to define a minimum set of well-documented use cases that need to be doable with Debian as a requirement to release.

We have no culture of documenting common cases of what one can do with Debian, that we acknowledge and support.

We have no way to tell a wishlist bug that proposes something cosmetic, from a wishlist bug that would help with making wheels in a common Debian use case spin more smoothly and painlessly.

Expected situation

I would like Debian contributors to be able to declare a use case they care about.

The use case would have:

• A list of package requirements
• User-facing walkthrough
• Functional testing instructions. For example, a checklist of steps to follow and expectations that need to be fulfilled before declaring that the use case is satisfied
• A set of Debian contributors that take responsibility for the use case

It should be easy to report and track issues around such a use case, and to specify that a bug in a package blocks that use case.