A Guide to Understanding the Defect Life Cycle
This tutorial aims to elucidate the life span of a defect, familiarizing you with the various stages a test engineer must negotiate while operating in a testing environment.
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We have also incorporated commonly asked interview questions on the Defect Life Cycle. It’s important to comprehend the different states a defect can inhabit in order to fully grasp the defect’s life cycle. The principal objective of conducting a testing activity is to determine if the product contains any faults/glitches.
In real-life environments, mistakes/glitches/errors are collectively referred to as bugs/defects, which means the main goal of testing is to ascertain that the product is less prone to defects (it’s unrealistic to expect no defects).
So, what exactly is a defect?
What This Tutorial Covers:
What Is A Defect?
A Defect is a snag or error in an application that hampers its normal operations by causing discrepancies between its expected and actual behavior.
A defect occurs when a developer makes an error during the design or construction of an application, and this error, when detected by a tester, is termed as a defect.
It’s the tester’s responsibility to perform comprehensive testing of the application to uncover as many defects as possible, thereby ensuring that the end-user receives a high-quality product. Understanding the defect life cycle is crucial before moving on to the workflow and the different states a defect can pass through.
Let’s delve deeper into the Defect Life Cycle.
Up to this point, we have clarified what a defect is and its context within testing activities. Let’s now turn our attention to the defect life cycle and learn about the workflow of a defect and its varying states.
In-depth Examination of the Defect Life Cycle
The Defect Life Cycle, also known as the Bug Life Cycle, is a progression path for defects, encompassing various stages throughout its existence. It commences as soon as a tester identifies a new defect and concludes when the tester closes said defect, confirming it will not be reproduced.
Workflow of a Defect
Now is the time to decipher the exact workflow of a Defect Life Cycle, illustrated by the straightforward diagram depicted below.
Various States of a Defect
#1) New: This is the initial state of a defect in the Defect Life Cycle. When a new defect is discovered, it falls under the ‘New’ state, with validations & testing conducted on this defect in the subsequent stages of the Defect Life Cycle.
#2) Assigned: In this phase, a newly discovered defect is designated to the development team for troubleshooting. This assignment is made by the project lead or testing team manager to a developer.
#3) Open: Here, the developer initiates the process of scrutinizing the defect and undertakes remedies if necessary.
If the developer deems the defect as unfitting, it may transition to one of the four states below, namely, Duplicate, Deferred, Rejected, or Not a Bug, depending on the specific reasoning. We will discuss these four states shortly.
#4) Fixed: Upon completion of defect rectification by making the necessary alterations, the developer can set the defect status as “Fixed”.
#5) Pending Retest: After the defect’s rectification, the developer assigns the defect to the tester for retesting. Until the tester undertakes the retest, the defect’s status remains “Pending Retest”.
#6) Retest: At this junction, the tester undertakes the retesting of the defect to verify if the developer has adequately fixed the defect as per the requirements.
#7) Reopen: If any issue persists with the defect, it will be re-assigned to the developer for testing, and the defect’s status changes to ‘Reopen’.
#8) Verified: If the tester does not find any issues with the defect after being assigned to the developer for retesting and is satisfied with the defect’s rectification, the defect’s status changes to ‘Verified’.
#9) Closed: When the defect ceases to exist, the tester alters the defect’s status to “Closed”.
Additional Possibilities:
- Rejected: If the developer doesn’t consider the defect to be genuine, the developer marks it as “Rejected”.
- Duplicate: If the developer identifies the defect as identical to another defect or if the rationale of the defect matches another one, then the defect’s status is revised to ‘Duplicate’ by the developer.
- Deferred: If the developer perceives the defect is not of high priority and can be fixed in future releases, the defect’s status can be changed to ‘Deferred’.
- Not a Bug: If the defect doesn’t impact the application’s functionality, the status of the defect is altered to “Not a Bug”.
The essential fields where a tester can log any new bug are Build version, Submitted On, Product, Module, Severity, Synopsis, and Description to Reproduce.
You can add some optional fields to the above list if you’re using a manual Bug submission template. These Optional Fields include Customer Name, Browser, Operating System, File Attachments, and Screenshots.
The following fields remain specified or empty:
You can specify bug Status, Priority, and ‘Assigned to’ fields if you have the authority to do so. Otherwise, the Test Manager will set the status and bug priority and assign the bug to the appropriate module manager.
Observe the subsequent Defect cycle
The above image is quite meticulous, and scrutinizing the various steps in the Bug Life Cycle can provide you with a rapid understanding of it.
Upon successful logging, the bug is reviewed by the Development and Test manager. Test Managers can set the bug status as Open and can assign the bug to the developer or defer the bug until the next release.
When a bug is assigned to a developer, they can begin working on it. The developer can set the bug status as won’t fix, couldn’t reproduce, need more information, or ‘Fixed’.
If the bug status set by the developer is either “Need more information” or “Fixed”, then the QA engages with a specific action. If the bug is fixed, then the QA verifies the bug and can set the bug status as verified, closed, or Reopen.
Guidelines for Implementing a Defect Life Cycle
There are critical guidelines that should be adhered to before starting to work with the Defect Life Cycle.
The guidelines are as follows:
- Prior to starting work on the Defect Life Cycle, it’s crucial that the entire team clearly understands the different states a defect can pass through (as discussed above).
- The Defect Life Cycle should be properly documented to prevent any future confusion.
- Ensure that every individual assigned tasks related to the Defect Life Cycle clearly understands their obligations, which can lead to improved results.
- Every individual altering the status of a defect should be fully aware of that status and should provide sufficient details about the status and the reason for setting that status. This helps everyone working on that particular defect easily comprehend the reason for that defect’s status.
- The defect tracking tool should be operated with attentiveness to maintain the uniformity among the defects, thereby ensuring smooth flow in the Defect Life Cycle.
Next, we will address the interview questions based on the Defect Life Cycle.
Commonly Asked Questions
Q #1) How would you define a defect in the domain of Software Testing?
Answer: A defect is any kind of error or glitch in the application that disrupts the application’s normal flow by causing a discrepancy between the anticipated and actual behavior of the application.
Q #2) What is the key distinction between Error, Defect, and Failure?
Answer:
Error: If developers discover a discrepancy between the anticipated and actual behavior of an application during the development phase, they term it an Error.
Defect: If testers identify a discrepancy between the anticipated and actual behavior of an application during the testing phase, they term it a Defect.
Failure: If customers or end-users find a discrepancy between the anticipated and actual behavior of an application during the production phase, they term it a Failure.
Q #3) What is the status of a defect when it is first detected?
Answer: When a new defect is detected, its status is ‘New’. This is the initial status of a newly detected defect.
Q #4) What are the different stages a defect goes through in the defect life cycle when a defect is acknowledged and rectified by a developer?
Answer: The various stages a defect passes through, in this case, are New, Assigned, Open, Fixed, Pending Retest, Retest, Verified, and Closed.
Q #5) What transpires if a tester still identifies an issue with a defect that has been rectified by a developer?
Answer: The tester can set the defect status as ‘Reopen’ if they still identify a problem with the fixed defect, and the defect is reassigned to a developer for retesting.
Q #6) What is a reproducible defect?
Answer: A reproducible defect refers to a defect that consistently occurs in every execution and whose steps can be captured in every execution.
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