Defect Triage by Matt Eakin

Defect Triage

NOTICE: PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL

This material is proprietary to and contains trade secrets and information which is solely the property of Centric Consulting, LLC. It is solely for the Client’s internal use and shall not be used, reproduced, copied, disclosed, transmitted, in whole or in part, without the express consent of Centric Consulting, LLC. © 2016 Centric Consulting, LLC. All rights reserved.

October 4, 2016

Matthew Eakin, National Test Strategist

• Matt.Eakin@CentricConsulting.com

• @MatthewEakin

• MatthewEakin

2

Disclaimers

•Similar presentation at Lets Test 2016 (Testing Lessons from Delivery Room Triage – Rob Sabourin & Anne DeSimone)While similar, they are different

•This is not all about test automation

3

Definition

Triage – The term "Triage" comes from the French verb trier, meaning to separate, sort, sift or select

4

5

Traditional Way of Triaging Defects•Priority – set by the tester

executing the script, it is based on the impact the defect has on the testers ability to execute the remaining scripts:

1. Critical – testing is fully blocked. Fix immediately

2. High – testing of important areas is blocked, fix on next code release

3. Medium – testing of minor functionality is blocked, fix when Dev can get to it

4. Low – no impact to testing, no plans to fix

•Severity – set by the business (Product Owner or Analyst), it is based on the risk associated to the business and business users:

1. Critical – system crash, defect will be blocking for Go Live

2. High – fundamental function is defective, big impact for Go Live

3. Medium – functional variation or requirement implemented incorrectly/partially, Go Live only if business agrees and workaround in place

4. Low – marginal variation, low impact on Go Live

6

Problems…

•Different definitions of what Priority is:•Developer definition: priority of work•Tester definition: testing impact•Analyst/Business definition: business priority

•Low Priority to a tester might be a Critical Priority to the Business, what might have been opened as a Medium Priority by the tester

•Confusion about what to work on:•P1’s 1st?•S1’s 1st?

A (kinda)New Approach

8

Priority categories in an ERBased on the severity of Patients wounds

A. Does this patient require immediate life-savingintervention?

B. Is this a patient who shouldn't wait?

C. How many resources will this patient need?

D. Are the patient's vital signs in the danger zone?

9

Goal

In an ER: a disposition decision reached (discharge-5 or 4, admission-1 or 2, or transfer-2, 3 or 4)

10

Priority categories in TestingBased on the severity of Defect

Is the App Dying?

Is it critical to the functionality being

implemented?

Business Impact?

Yes

Yes

Fix Now

Fix This Sprint(1-2 Days)

No

No

Fix This Release(1-2 Months,

Before Production release)Product

Backlog

High

Low

1

2

3

4

11

Goal

In testing: a disposition decision reached (discharge-put in Product Backlog, admission-team fix, or transfer-someone outside the team to fix)

The Priorities

13

Priority categories in TestingBased on the severity of Defect

Is the App Dying?

Is it critical to the functionality being

implemented?

Business Impact?

Yes

Yes

Fix Now

Fix This Sprint(1-2 Days)

No

No

Fix This Release(1-2 Months,

Before Production release)Product

Backlog

High

Low

14

Is the App Dying?Action: Fix it now

Remember the ER definition:

Does this patient require immediate life-saving intervention?

15

Example

16

Priority categories in TestingBased on the severity of Defect

Is the App Dying?

Is it critical to the functionality being

implemented?

Business Impact?

Yes

Yes

Fix Now

Fix This Sprint(1-2 Days)

No

No

Fix This Release(1-2 Months,

Before Production release)Product

Backlog

High

Low

17

Example

18

Is it critical to the functionality?Action: Fix it in Sprint (1-2 days)

•Remember the ER definition: Is this a patient who shouldn't wait?

Key: Can the requirement pass business sign-off?

19

Handling a Defect as a TeamPriority Levels

•Honest team discussion about what is broke, what needs to be fixed, AND what additional tests need to be added

•Team agreement needed on the action needed to fix

20

Bring Information•As the Tester who found the problem, you need to bring:

•Mare sure it is a defect•Make sure EVERYONE needed to make a decision or help

explain what is going on is present•Steps to recreate (script which failed)•Are there any known system outages?•What is the defect information (stack trace)?•And much, much more…

21

Priority categories in TestingBased on the severity of Defect

Is the App Dying?

Is it critical to the functionality being

implemented?

Business Impact?

Yes

Yes

Fix Now

Fix This Sprint(1-2 Days)

No

No

Fix This Release(1-2 Months,

Before Production release)Product

Backlog

High

Low

22

Business Impact?Action: Fix in Release or Product Backlog

•There is only 1 person who can determine the business impact: the Product Owner (and potentially an Analyst)

Example

When tags are used for business value

categorization, allows rapid decision making on business impacts.

Why a differentapproach?

25

Remember the Goal

In testing: a disposition decision reached (discharge-put in Product Backlog, admission-team fix, or transfer-someone outside the team to fix)

26

Benefit of Triaging

Allows team to work on what is important

27

Defect Reviews

•P2’s need to be reviewed daily

•P3’s & P4’s need to be reviewed as part of Backlog Grooming

Are some defects still relevant?

28

QUESTIONS?

To learn more about Centric Consulting:CentricConsulting.com

Matthew Eakin, National Test Strategist

Contact Centric

• Matt.Eakin@CentricConsulting.com

• @MatthewEakin

• MatthewEakin