What is Defect?

Introduction to Defect

A Defect in general means any malfunction that interrupts the normal expected behaviour of an item or a product. In software development, a Defect is a fault in the functional or substantial property of application observed as a deviation in the requirement specification provided by the client. Defects have dedicated management process and lifecycle. It is important that all the defects are handled before delivering the product to the client, in turn to maintain the client relationship.

What is Defect Management Process?

This process involves detecting and fixing them.

1. Prevention
2. Deliverable Baseline
3. Discovery
4. Resolution
5. Process Improvement

Let us go through the process in detail.

1. Prevention

To eliminate all defects, the best way is to prevent them from coming. This helps in saving money and is very cost-effective. To reach this stage it is very important that all defects should be caught in the early stages of testing. The main aim here can be minimizing the impact that a defect has. This can be done by following steps:

• Identify Critical Risk: The critical areas in the system must be identified beforehand so that the impact is less or not at all there when testing is being done.
• Estimation of Expected Impact: Once the risks are identified an estimation should be gathered on how the impact can affect financially if the risk actual escapes to production.
• Minimizing Expected Impact: A list of risks will be found by this analysis. The topmost risks would be harmful and those should be the ones that must be minimized or eliminated. The ones which cannot be removed completely will reduce the probability of occurrence of this defect.

2. Deliverable Baseline

A baseline is when a pre-defined milestone is reached. When this step is reached it is made sure that when the product moves from one stage to another. As the product keeps moving from one stage to another all existing defects also move ahead with the progress of the product. The milestone has a deadline and if the bug is fixed before reaching this deadline then it is not a defect. Once the coding and unit test is done then the code is said to be baselined and moved to system testing. Once the issue is found in system testing then the defect is raised. The baselined deliverable is the one where all deliverables are finalized, and all possible defects are fixed.

3. Discovery

The defect is said to be discovered when it is brought to everyone’s attention. The development team after the analysis is accepted by the development team to be fixed. Here it needs to be checked before they become a blocker. Once the testing team finds the defect it is the responsibility of the tester to inform the development team and make sure that the defect is acknowledged. Once the acknowledgment is received then they can continue further with the defect to validate it and provide a fix for it.

4. Resolution

Once the bug is reported the development team must move towards its resolution. They must analyze and then prioritize fixing the defect found. Priority of defect can be set if the impact is more. The defects having higher priority are resolved first and the ones with lower priority are resolved later. The developer must fix it and then inform the tester about the fix. They can understand the cause of the defect when this activity is performed. All defects that are generated must be categorized systematically. The critical ones must be fixed immediately. The defects which have high priority must be also fixed as they impact the main functionalities of the product. It should have a minimal deviation from its requirement. Such types must be medium. The defect which can have minor implication should be marked as low.

5. Process Improvement

All defects should be fixed. Though they may have their priorities, it should be made sure that all are being fixed irrespective of the priorities being set. In order to improve the process, it is important that all defects are considered as critical. The smallest of the defects can help in improving the quality and prevent the occurrence of the defect. After all this, another management reporting also is an important part. All individual defects must be reported and all information regarding these should be given to senior management. This also provides insight into areas where the process can be improved.

Advantages

Given below are some of the advantages.

• Its management ensures that the bugs which are found are actually getting fixed. It helps in tracking it to closure with the developers and testers working together.
• Once they are fixed it is assured that all flaws in the system are removed. It ensures that a high-quality product is being delivered. It saves both time and money. Efficiency and economics are both well maintained.
• The return on investment can be improved by reducing the cost of development. This means by prioritizing the issues repetitive problems can be identified easily. The team’s productivity is increased as a result of this.
• The issues once resolved can help in determining a pattern or understanding the trends of the bug. They are more relatable for the future. Common issues can be identified and fixed as early as possible.
• The communication gap can be reduced as the testers and developers can work together towards resolving the found issues.

Conclusion

The entire process helps in resolving the defects and delivering a quality product. It can never be assured that no bugs would be found but this process helps in streamlining the complete process and reducing the number of defects. By following the entire process, it can be ensured that there will not be a bottleneck when the product is moved to production. As a result, the money is saved and a quality product is delivered.

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