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Track Defects Subprocess


The Track Defects subprocess is designed to collect the data required to measure and monitor the quality of the application, and also to control project risk and scope. The process, illustrated in Figure 17, is designed so that those with the best understanding of the customer priorities are in control of defect prioritization. The business analyst monitors a list of newly discovered issues using a defect tracking system like the Siebel Quality module. These users monitor, prioritize, and target defects with regular frequency. This is typically done daily in the early stages of a project and perhaps several times a day in later stages.

Figure 17.  Diagram of the Track Defects subprocess

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The level of scrutiny is escalated for defects discovered after the project freeze date. A very careful measurement of the impact to the business of a defect versus the risk associated with introducing a late change must be made at the project level. Commonly, projects that do not have appropriate levels of change management in place have difficulty reaching a level of system stability adequate for deployment. Each change introduced carries with it some amount of regression risk. Late in a project, it is the responsibility of the entire project team, including the business unit, to carefully manage the amount of change introduced.

Once a defect has been approved to be fixed, it is assigned to development and a fix is designed, implemented, unit tested, and checked in. The testing team must then verify the fix by bringing the affected components back to the same testing phase where the defect was discovered. This requires reexecution of test cases from earlier phases. The defect is finally closed and verified when the component or module successfully passes the test cases in which it was discovered. The process of validating a fix can often require the reexecution of past test cases, so this is one activity where automated testing tools can provide significant savings. One best practice is to define regression suites of test cases that allow the team to reexecute a relevant, comprehensive set of test cases when a fix is checked in.

Tracking defects also collects the data required to measure and monitor system quality. Important data inputs to the deployment readiness decision include the number of open defects and defect discovery rate. Also, it is important for the business customer to understand and approve the known open defects prior to system deployment.

Best Practice

Track Defects. The use of a Defect Tracking System allows a project manager to understand the current quality of the application, prioritize defect fixes based on business impact, and carefully control risk associated with configuration changes late in the project.


 Testing Siebel eBusiness Applications 
 Published: 21 July 2003