KC 7.5 - Defect Management

Identification of the most common sources of information and the different methods, frequency, and types of reporting is a very important activity in an organisation. Through the defect reports provided, further plans on defect prevention or process improvement can happen. Presently, many defect tracking software are available both open source as well as commercial.

Defect Prevention involves analyzing defects that were encountered in the past and taking specific actions to prevent the occurrence of those types of defects in the future. The defects may have been identified on other projects as well as in earlier stages or tasks of the current project. Defect prevention activities are also one mechanism for spreading lessonslearned between projects.

Trends are analyzed to track the types of defects that have been encountered and to identify defects that are likely to recur. Based on an understanding of the project's defined software process and how it is implemented (as described in the Integrated Software Management and
Software Product Engineering key process areas), the root causes of the defects and the implications of the defects for future activities are determined.

Other resources:

• Defect tracking tools - http://testingfaqs.org/t-track.html
• Gauging software readiness with defect tracking