Define yours Example
The Defect Life Cycle is a sequence of steps or phases that a software defect goes through from its identification to its resolution. The Defect Life Cycle can be defined in different ways, but a typical Defect Life Cycle includes the following stages:
- New: When a defect is identified, it is assigned a unique identifier, and its details are entered into a defect tracking tool. The defect is marked as "New," and the testing team verifies whether the defect is genuine or not.
- Assigned: Once the defect is verified, it is assigned to the developer responsible for fixing it. The status of the defect is changed to "Assigned."
- Open: Once the developer starts working on the defect, the status of the defect is changed to "Open."
- Fixed: When the developer fixes the defect, the status of the defect is changed to "Fixed," and the developer marks the defect as "Ready for Testing."
- Ready for Retest: The testing team then verifies whether the defect has been fixed or not. If the defect is still present, the defect is reopened, and the status is changed to "Open." If the defect is fixed, the status of the defect is changed to "Ready for Retest."
- Retest: In this stage, the testing team retests the functionality where the defect was found to verify that the defect has been fixed correctly. If the defect is not resolved, it is again assigned to the developer, and the process starts over from step 2.
- Closed: Once the testing team verifies that the defect has been fixed correctly, the defect is marked as "Closed."
It is important for testers to understand the Defect Life Cycle to ensure that defects are handled consistently and efficiently throughout the software development life cycle.
How Sarah use it:
Sarah is a software tester working on a mobile application project. During the testing phase, she discovers a defect where the application crashes when the user clicks on a particular button. She logs the defect in the company's defect tracking tool with the following details:
- Defect ID: 123
- Summary: Application crashes on clicking button X
- Description: When the user clicks on button X, the application crashes and returns to the home screen.
- Priority: High
- Severity: Critical
- Status: New
After logging the defect, Sarah assigns it to the developer responsible for fixing it. The developer reproduces the issue and logs a note in the defect tracking tool with the following details:
- Status: Open
- Assigned to: Developer A
The developer then begins working on fixing the defect. Once the fix is completed, they mark the defect as "Ready for Testing" and assign it back to Sarah for retesting. Sarah then tests the fix and logs the following note in the defect tracking tool:
- Status: Retest
- Description: Tested the fix and confirmed that the issue is resolved.
If the retest is successful, Sarah marks the defect as "Closed". If the retest fails, she reopens the defect and assigns it back to the developer for further work.
Throughout the defect lifecycle, the status of the defect is updated to reflect the current state of the defect and who is responsible for taking action on it. This helps to ensure that defects are properly tracked and resolved in a timely manner.
The Solution:
Once upon a time, there was a software development company that was working on a new project. The development team was very excited about the project and was working hard to complete it on time. However, they did not have a proper defect life cycle process in place, and they did not take defect management seriously.
As a result, the testers found many defects in the code during the testing phase, but the development team was not able to prioritize them or track them properly. The team was more focused on fixing the issues as quickly as possible and moving on to the next task. This resulted in many defects going unnoticed or not getting fixed at all.
The situation worsened when the product was delivered to the client. The client started to notice many defects in the system, and the support team was overwhelmed with the number of issues they had to handle. The development team was also struggling to keep up with the fixes, and the quality of the product suffered greatly.
The company had to invest a lot of time and resources to fix the defects and retest the system, which caused delays and cost overruns. The client lost confidence in the company, and the company lost a significant amount of business as a result.
After this experience, the company realized the importance of having a proper defect life cycle process and implemented it in their future projects. They also trained their team members on the importance of tracking and managing defects, and they conducted regular defect analysis sessions to identify the root cause of the issues and prevent them from happening again.
In the end, the company was able to deliver high-quality products to their clients, and their business started to grow again.