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Sunday, April 24, 2011

What Is a Bug Defect?

 By Jimmy Drago

Photo: estevenjones.com

A software bug defect is the common term used to describe an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that produces an incorrect or unexpected result. Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors made by software developers in either the program source code or its design, and a few are caused by compilers producing incorrect code. After a defect has been found, it must be reported to development so that it can be fixed.

Importance of an effective Bug Defect Tracking System

Bug tracking is often presumed to be an unnecessary cost to the organization. But the fact is that effective defect tracking can help in developing quality-rich software products at less cost. But the only criterion for effective defect tracking management is to adopt best practices. Selecting a bug defect tracking system that is easy to use by entering clear and relevant information. Entering details that help with reporting, using screenshots to avoid ambiguity, and avoiding entry of more than one report for a single defect are some of the measures by which a QA test management team can ensure quality and also cut down costs.

Bug reporting is essentially a complex and complicated process that requires precision, detailing and a whole lot of information. Reporting and tracking bugs manually works fine in case of small projects, whereas for mission-critical or large projects, a paper-based approach can result in chaos and confusion.

Bug defect tracking is of paramount importance in software engineering, as complex software systems typically have tens or hundreds or thousands of defects. Managing, evaluating and prioritizing these defects is a difficult task. QA test management teams need an effective bug defect tracking system to log the identified bugs and to monitor them. Defect tracking systems are computer database systems that store defects and help people to manage them. The details given in the defect tracking database are an important source for software metrics like project metrics, progress metrics, testing metrics, etc. These details definitely help the QA managers to effectively gauge the progress of the project and if necessary, put in more effort to improve quality.

The reporting of bug through the defect tracking system is done such that it accurately reports the problem in a way that allows the reader to understand its full impact. In software test management, it is very important that all the bug defects are appropriately recorded/logged, tracked and reported.

A bug-tracking system is an integral part of any software test management as it helps the project team to successfully measure the project's status. It not only helps in logging and reporting bugs, but also in managing and handling them efficiently until they have been fixed. The measurements, also known as metrics help the QA test management team to assess the quality of the software and in making business-critical decisions. Apart from assessing the quality of the software, these metrics such as project metrics, progress metrics and defect metrics also help in evaluating the success ratio of a tester or programmer.

An efficient defect tracking system not only tracks defects but also tracks metrics to make sure everything is going according to the software development plan. It increases productivity at low cost and helps in mission-critical decisions.

An effective bug defect tracking system helps the QA Tester add, search, modify and track bug defects thereby making software test management a quicker process.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jimmy_Drago

2 comments:

  1. Really i am impressed from this post....the person who created this post is a genius and knows how to keep
    the readers connected. Thanks for sharing this with us. I found it informative and interesting. Looking forward for more updates.

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  2. With this blog you really took our attention to the points that we never thought about. Thanks for sharing this with all of us.


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