Defect Management - Tracking Software
Defect management is crucial to closing the loop between requirements, implementation and verification and validation. If implemented properly, the defect management process is tightly interlinked with all the other software development processes. The defect management process contains the following elements:
Defect Discovery – Identification and reporting of potential defects. The defect tracking system must be simple enough so that people will use it, but ensure that the minimum necessary information is captured. The information captured here should be enough to reproduce the defect and allow development to determine root cause and impact.
Defect Analysis & Prioritization – The development team determines if the defect report corresponds to an actual defect, if the defect has already been reported, and what the impact and priority of the defect is. Prioritization and scheduling of the defect resolution is often part of the overall change management process for the software development organization. Defect Resolution – Here the development team determines the root cause, implements the changes needed to fix the defect, and documents the details of the resolution, including suggestions on how to verify the defect is fixed. In organizations using Software Product Lines approaches, or other shared component approaches, defect resolution may need to be coordinated across multiple branches of development.
Defect Verification – The build containing the resolution to the defect is identified, and testing of the build is performed to ensure the defect truly has been resolved, and that the resolution has not introduced side effects or regressions. Once all affected branches of development have been verified as resolved, the defect can be closed.
Defect Communication – This encompasses automatic generation of defect metrics for management reporting and process improvement purposes, as well as visibility into the presence and status of defects across all disciplines of the software development team.
As part of a unified development platform, the defect management capabilities of MKS Integrity are seamlessly linked with the activities and artifacts of the other development processes. This out of the box visibility across artifacts, combined with unprecedented process flexibility makes MKS Integrity the best choice for addressing challenges such as:
- Discovery and Notification
- Defect Resolution across Multiple Lines of Development
- Automated Defect Verification
