At least, today, if you want // TODO or // FIXME - do both :add a ticket number, like: // TODO Refactor for Greater Good #123 (or https://<github>|<jira>/#123.
Filling in issues can feel like "busy work" - but it really is the least bad way to split up work, and keep track of things.
I think fossil has the right idea here, distributing issues along with the source code repository (and there's a few attempts to bring that to git/mercurial - but I've yet to find one that really works).
In general project "meta data" like documentation and tickets needs to be kept in a database, and there needs to be cross-reference between code revisions and ticket state as well as wiki/documentation - but they probably are 2 or 3 "different" projects.
Sometimes you have windows to meet. Sometimes one task has been authorised, while another has not. Sometimes there is a chance a piece of code will soon become obsolete, so a TODO is conditional on that not being the case.
Filling in issues can feel like "busy work" - but it really is the least bad way to split up work, and keep track of things.
I think fossil has the right idea here, distributing issues along with the source code repository (and there's a few attempts to bring that to git/mercurial - but I've yet to find one that really works).
In general project "meta data" like documentation and tickets needs to be kept in a database, and there needs to be cross-reference between code revisions and ticket state as well as wiki/documentation - but they probably are 2 or 3 "different" projects.