In a perfect world in which everything is perfect, software development would be a very simple process; the developers would go through the stages of the product life cycle only once and be done with it. There would be no need for testing, or even maintenance of the application. However, in reality, issues and bugs in an application are inevitable and the testing measures are an indispensable part of the process.
Anything that is possibly wrong with an application, ranging from a simple performance issue or spelling mistake to a customer complaint about the user interface, can be considered a defect. More often than not, companies require robust defect tracking software not only to detect potential problems in the software application but to also keep a track of their progress and keep a record of the related history and comments.
Need for Defect Tracking Tools
The later a bug is identified in the development lifecycle, the higher the costs would be to fix the issue. Hence, it is advisable for the companies to start the testing process as early as possible and report the problems so that there is more time on the schedule to make it right. With a proficient defect tracking software at their disposal, companies are able to identify defects in the application early in the development phases and resolve the issue through a systematic process.
Defect Tracking Cycle
There are various stages of defect tracking and management that an issue must pass through in order to be resolved;
Discovery – in this phase of defect tracking, the testing and quality assurance teams work to identify all possible defects in the application before it is released to the client or the end-user. The status of the defect is changed from discovered to accepted when it is accepted and acknowledged by testers and developers.
Categorization – with this process, the teams aim to categorize the defects according to their impact and probability and allocate them to the team as per to their criticality. The defects usually range from highly critical whereby there is an immediate need to fix the issue because the defect may cause a serious damage to the application, to low impact issues where there is a very minor effect on the product development.
Resolution – after the defect has been discovered and categorized, it is then assigned to a member from the development team to resolve the issue and change the status to responding. The developer then takes control of the situation and fix a schedule for the resolution process, fixes the issue, and report the progress back to the whole team.
Verification – Once the developers have resolved the issue and logged it in the defect tracking system, the testing team then verifies the defects that have been resolved. This step is to make sure that the reportedly resolved issues do not cause the same problems that they did previously and have been addressed by the development team. The status of the defects is then changed to closed.
