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Newsletter
Sponsors |
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 International
Software Testing Conference ( VERIFY 2006 )
By Industry Leaders.
Attendees from around the World.
Keynotes, Features, 6 Tracks, Workshops.
10-11 October. Washington DC
Testing: automated, security, agile, database, web
services, risk-based, data migration, Java / .NET,
model-based, SAP, test management, secure software,
test-driven development.
Click here
for details. |
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Remoteus
(http://www.PragmaticSW.com/Remoteus.asp)
is remote desktop sharing
software used to simplify help desk support by allowing
your support team to connect to client PCs. |
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 Software
Planner
(http://www.SoftwarePlanner.com)
is a web-based solution for managing the software life
cycle. Tracks customer requirements, tasks,
defects, test cases and allows document sharing. |
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Web
Information Center
(http://www.WICDirect.com)
is a web reporting
system that presents information from SQL databases in a
polished format. Pivot tables and Crystal Reports
integration. |
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 Pragmatic Office
(http://www.PragmaticOffice.com)
is a web-based office management tool for tracking
contacts (sales leads, vendors, customers, and other
contacts). It also allows teams to manage project
deliverables, share files, and manage their calendar
with Microsoft Outlook™
integration. |
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Twin
Cities Quality Assurance Association, a federation
Chapter of QAI, the Quality Assurance Institute (TCQAA)
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http://www.TCQAA.org
The 4th Annual TCQAA Golf Classic is being held on
September 8th 2006 at the Legacy Golf Course in
Faribault, MN. To date the TCQAA Golf Classic has raised
over $20,000 in donations to the Emergency Food Shelves
as part of our continuing effort to improve the quality
of life for those that need it, just as we strive to
improve the quality of software in our day to day jobs.
For more information, read the
Kickoff letter and then look at the rest of the
Golf2006 web site to get additional facts and to
sign up to participate or volunteer. |
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Managing Workflow for
Software Defects
For teams managing software quality, it is crucial to manage the workflow around
the defect reporting process so that everyone understands
how a defect moves from recognition to resolution. Below are some
tips for defining the workflow for software defects.
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Define the
Workflow Statuses
- When tracking software defects, it
is important to define the workflow.
Workflow is normally tracked via the
"status". Let's create a simple
workflow for a development team, where the tester
finds a defect and follows it through
resolution, quality assurance and closure. Below
are some possible sets of statuses
(workflow) for this process.
Workflow
Statuses:
Active
Resolved
QAed
Committee
Closed |
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Flowchart
the Workflow -
Flowcharting the workflow allows team
members to understand the process in full.
We created the flowchart below using
Microsoft Word.
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Advanced
Workflow - In our
example above, we used simple workflow.
However, if your team uses software to
manage defects, you should be
able to implement more robust workflow.
For example, the software should allow you
to define "state transitions". This
identifies how a status can transition from
one status to another. In our example,
above, you may want to setup these
transitions:
» Active
- Can only transition to Resolved or
Committee
»
Committee - Can only transition to
Active or Closed
» Resolved
- Can only transition to Active or QAed
» QAed
- Can only transition to Active or Closed
» Closed
- No transitions allowed
Likewise, the
software should also allow you to define
what fields (or items) you wish to make
required upon different states. In the
example above, if the defect is changed
to Resolved, we may want
to require that the programmer enter the
resolution information (resolution code
and description of how they resolved it). Robust
defect tracking software will allow
you to define the field attributes for each
state transition. Software
Planner (http://www.SoftwarePlanner.com)
does this nicely, you can see how this is
handled from Software Planner by
viewing this movie:
http://www.pragmaticsw.com/GuidedTours/Default.asp?FileName=Workflow
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Defect
Severity
- Another important aspect of defect
tracking is to objectively define your
defect severities. If this is
subjective, team members will struggle
classifying the severity. Below are
severities that are objective:
» 1-Crash
- Set when the defect causes the software to
crash
» 2-Major
Bug - Set when there is a major defect
with NO workaround
»
3-Workaround - Set when there is a
defect but it has a workaround
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4-Trivial - Not a major bug, trivial
(e.g. misspelling, etc)
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Defect
Priority
- Similar to severity, the priority for
resolving the defect should be objective,
not subjective. Below are priorities
that are objective:
» 1-Fix
ASAP - Highest
level of priority, must be fixed as soon as
possible
» 2-Fix
Soon - Fix once the priority 1 items are
completed
» 3-Fix If
Time - Fix if time allows, otherwise,
fix in a future release
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User
Acceptance Test Release Template
- Upon entering User Acceptance Testing, it
is wise to create a document that describes
how your QA process went. Here is a
User Acceptance Test Release Report template:
http://www.PragmaticSW.com/Pragmatic/Templates/UATRelease.rtf
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