Defect Tracking and

Management

“Defect Management Process (Bug Tracking) is manage a bug from

it birth to it's death”
Defect Management
• A major test objective is to identify defects. Once identified,
defects need to be recorded, monitored, reported and
corrected.
• The primary goal is to prevent defects. Where this is not
possible or practical, the goals are to both find the defect as
quickly as possible and minimize the impact of the defect.

• The defect management process like the entire software

development process, should be risk driven, i.e., strategies,
priorities and resources should be based on an assessment of
the risk.
• Defect measurement should be integrated into the
development process and be used by the project team to
improve the development process.
• Defect information should be used to improve the process
• Imperfect or flawed processes cause most defects.
Defect Management
• A defect can be defined in one of two ways:

▫ From the producer’s viewpoint

 A defect is a deviation from specifications, whether
missing, wrong, or extra
▫ From the Customer’s viewpoint

 A defect is anything that causes customer

dissatisfaction, whether in the requirements or not;
this is know as ”fit for use.”
Defect Management Process
Defect Prevention  -- Implementation of techniques,
methodology and standard processes to reduce the risk of
defects.

Deliverable Baseline  -- Establishment of milestones where

deliverables will be considered complete and ready for further
development work.  When a deliverable is baselined, any
further changes are controlled.  Errors in a deliverable are not
considered defects until after the deliverable is baselined.

Defect Discovery  -- Identification and reporting of defects

for development team acknowledgment.  A defect is only
termed discovered when it has been documented and
acknowledged as a valid defect by the development team
member(s) responsible for the component(s) in error.
• Defect Resolution  -- Work by the development team to
prioritize, schedule and fix a defect, and document the
resolution.  This also includes notification back to the tester to
ensure that the resolution is verified.

• Process Improvement -- Identification and analysis of the

process in which a defect originated to identify ways to
improve the process to prevent future occurrences of similar
defects.  Also the validation process that should have
identified the defect earlier is analyzed to determine ways to
strengthen that process.

• Management Reporting  -- Analysis and reporting of

defect information to assist management with risk
management, process improvement and project management.
Defect Management
• The following structure is recommended to report a defect:
▫ Title:
 Type the problem encountered in the application, the title
needs to be understandable
For Example:
You can use the following categories:
▫ Missing
▫ Inaccurate
▫ Incomplete
▫ Inconsistent
▫ Incorrect
 Example:
▫ Missing validation in “Project” field
▫ Incorrect spelling in “status” drop down list
Defect Management

• Description
▫ Type a brief description of the problem
• Steps to reproduce:
▫ Type all the steps to get to the problem, all steps must be cleared
For example:
1.- Login to FIDO
2.- Click on Add Invoice
3.- Type !@#$%% in Project field
4.- Click on Save
Defect Management
• Actual Results
▫ Type the actual results of the action
For example:
The following error message is displayed..
▫ Comments:
Type any comments or notify to the developers of any
screenshots
(attachments)
For Example: This defect is reproducible in Project field. (see
attached file)
• Expected Results
▫ Type the expected results of the action.
For Example:
Data should be saved successfully.
Defect Management

• Consider the following caveats

▫ Most of the organizations have a Defect Tracking Tool to log the
defects found during Test Execution, one of the most common
tools in the market is Test Director of Mercury tools
▫ The budget in some organizations is limited to afford buying a
commercial tool, thus they prefer to create their own defect
tracking process
▫ A very simple way to track the defects of the application is using
a spreadsheet of Excel
• The following slide shows an example of a complete Defect Report
and a Defect Tracking Sheet in Excel
Defect Tracking Example
Defect Management Process

• The steps below describe a simple defect tracking process:

▫ Execute the test and compare the actual results to the
documented expected results.
▫ If a discrepancy exists, log the discrepancy with a status of
“open”. Supplementary documentation, such as screen prints or
program traces, should be attached if available.
▫ The test manager or tester should review the problem log with the
appropriate member of the development team to determine if the
discrepancy is truly a defect.
Defect Management Process

▫ Assign the defect to a developer for correction.

▫ Once the defect is corrected, the developer will usually enter a
description of the fix applied and update the defect status to
“Fixed” or “Retest”.
▫ The defect is routed back to the test team for retesting.
▫ Additional regression testing is performed as needed based on
the severity and impact of the fix applied.
▫ If the retest result match the expected result, the defect status is
updated to “closed”. If the test results indicate that the defect is
still not fixed, the status is changed to “open” and sent back to the
developer.