This database was probably inspired by bug tracking systems.
With any kind of issue tracking or bug tracking, a common occurrence is that the person who reported a bug is unsatisfied with the way it was resolved. For example, a tester may report a bug, and a programmer may claim that it was fixed, but when the tester checks, it's not really fixed. The programmer might have misinterpreted the bug report and fixed something different, for example... this is surprisingly common. Or, the programmer may think that the bug is not important enough to fix, and the tester may disagree.
In bug tracking systems, a programmer RESOLVES a bug, which means that they believe that they have fixed the bug, or they have decided not to fix it... either way, they dealt with it.
In most bug tracking systems, when a bug is resolved, it gets reassigned to the person who opened it. This serves two purposes:
- It notifies the opener that the bug has been dealt with
- It allows the opener to decide if they are happy with the resolution. If they are, they can close it. If they aren't, they can reactivate it and send it back.
In other words, the bug has to stay open, even after it's resolved, until the original opener decides that they are happy with the resolution.