Why Bug/Defect Triage is Important in Software Testing

What is 'Defect Triage'?

Defect triage is a process where each bug is prioritized based on its severity, frequency, risk, etc. Triage term is used in the Software testing / QA to define the severity and priority of new defects.

In this tutorial, we will learn-

• What is 'Defect Triage'?
• Why do we need to have 'Defect Triage'?
• How often 'Defect Triage' needs to be conducted in a release?
• Who are the mandatory and other participants of 'Defect Triage'?
• Roles and Responsibilities of participants during 'Defect Triage.'
• What happens during 'Defect Triage' Meeting?
• What is the outcome of the 'Defect Triage'?

Why do we need to have 'Defect Triage'?

The goal of Bug Triage is to evaluate, prioritize and assign the resolution of defects. The team needs to validate severities of the defect, make changes as per need, finalize resolution of the defects, and assign resources. Mainly used in agile project management.

How often 'Defect Triage' needs to be conducted in a release?

The frequency of Defect triage meeting is not fixed. It depends on project situation.

Here, are some important factors that decide the frequency of Defect Triage Meetings:

These Important factors are:

• As per the project schedule
• Number of defects in the system
• Impact on schedules of team members' availability
• Overall project health

Usually, Defect Triage Meetings are held two or three times in a week.

Who are the mandatory and other participants of 'Defect Triage'?

Mandatory Participants

Below project members always take part in Defect Triage Meetings.

• Project Manager
• Test Team Leader
• Technical Lead
• Development Team Leader

Optional Participants

• Developers
• Testers
• Business Analyst

Roles and Responsibilities of participants during 'Defect Triage.'

Test Team Leader

• Scheduled bug triage meeting and send meeting notification for attendees.
• Create a defect report and send it to all attendees before the meeting.
• Assign priority and severity of the defects.
• Give a presentation so that other members understand Root Cause of defect.
• Every meeting note is captured and sent to meeting attendees.

Development Lead

• Helps in the prioritization of the defects.
• Discuss defect difficulty and explain the risk involved because of that defect.
• Allocate work to fix defects to relevant developers.
• Update the defect resolution and include development notes in case any information is missing or any additional information needed by developers.

Project Manager

• Help in the prioritization of the defects.
• Discuss the next iteration release date for QA.
• Need to make sure that related user representatives are also invited to the bug triage meeting.

What happens during 'Defect Triage' Meeting?

• Test Team leader sends out a bug report with the new defects. During the defect triage meeting, each defect is analyzed to see whether right priority and severity are assigned to it.
• Priorities are rearranged if needed.
• Defects are analyzed and evaluated by the degree of their severity.
• This include discussion regarding the complexity of the defect, risks, rejection, reassignment of errors is done.
• Updates are captured in bug tracking system.
• The QA engineer will make the changes to each defect and discuss them with each attendee.
• The "Comments" field is updated correctly by noting essential points of the meeting.

What is the outcome of the 'Defect Triage'?

At the end of every meeting, Defect Triage Metrics will be prepared and given to all the attendees. This report acts as the meeting minutes which will prove helpful for future meetings.

Conclusion:

• Defect triage is a process where each bug is prioritized based on its severity, frequency, risk, etc.
• The goal of Bug Triage is to evaluate, prioritize and assign the resolution of defects.
• The frequency of defect triage meeting is decided according to the project schedule, number of defects in the system, overall project health, etc.
• Project Manager, Test Team Leader, Technical Lead, Development Team Leader are taken part in this meeting.
• Defects are analyzed and evaluated by the degree of their severity.