Creating a defect and enhancement register
During testing, you will uncover defects and enhancements. These need to be recorded and prioritized so that they can be included into the work schedule and fixed.
Getting ready
Identify the defects which have been uncovered, and to which requirements they relate.
How to do it...
A Project Control Register enables you to track all your issues, defects, and enhancements in one location. This creates a centralized location for this information, reducing the risk of missing or forgetting issues.
- Open the Project Control Register.
- Create a new tab called Defect & Enhancement:
- Identify the key information to record for all defects or enhancements:
- #: This is the defect or enhancement number
- Type: This determines whether this is a defect or enhancement
- Test Script: This contains the test script which uncovered the issue
- Requirement # : This is the associated requirement
- Date: This contains the date when the defect or enhancement was raised
- Priority: This is the priority for the defect or enhancement
- Status: This is the status of the defect or enhancement
- Description: This is an outline of the defect or enhancement
- Test Release: This is the release in which the defect or enhancement was found
- Schedule Date: This is the date the defect or enhancement is scheduled to be completed
- Prod Release: This is the production release the defect or enhancement will be included into
- Define your domains for Priority and Status. Typical values for this include:
- Priority
- Critical: Should only be used when this causes a stoppage to activities on the project
- High: Realized risk or new issue that will have significant impact on the project if not solved
- Medium: Realized risk or new issue that will have moderate impact on the project if not solved
- Low: Realized risk or new issue that will have low impact on the project if not solved
- Status
- New: New defect or enhancement. No action taken
- Open: Defect or enhancement is being worked on
- Test Migrate: Defect or enhancement is completed and ready for migration to test environment
- Test: Defect or enhancement has been migrated to a test environment and is ready for testing
- Prod Migrate: Defect or enhancement has passed testing and is ready for migration to production
- Prod Sign Off: Defect or enhancement passed testing in production and is ready to be closed
- Closed: Defect or enhancement is resolved
- Re-Open: Defect or enhancement does not pass testing and requires additional work
- Priority
How it works...
Defects should be estimated within a project and prioritized as a team. Once prioritized, these can be scheduled and assigned to be completed. Having an understanding of the defects and enhancements will give the project an insight into the amount of additional work that is necessary to complete the project.
There's more...
Enhancements are a little different from defects. While defects are against existing requirements, enhancements can be entirely new requirements. For enhancements or changes to existing requirements, it is recommended that additional information is gathered. Additional information would outline how to reproduce defects, and the desired outcome. Enhancements should include sufficient information to be able to understand the requirement and the impact to the project. The Requirements Traceability Matrix should be updated, and the new requirements should be included to facilitate tracking and identify any other artifacts/documents that require updating.
In team development, there is a bug tracking module:
- Click on the Bugs option.
- This is a bug dashboard that shows Percent Closed, Assigned Developers, Severity, and Status:
- Click on the Create Bug button:
You can add information to the bug, and assign the bug to a feature. You can assign this to a release. Status, Severity, and Priority are all pre-defined by the application.