Being Agile: Eleven Breakthrough Techniques to Keep You from “Waterfalling Backward”

Do You Carry a Defect Backlog?

If your answer is “Yes,” then you need to ask yourself “Why?” If defects are put off until later, they almost always come back to haunt a project. It’s much tougher to resurrect quality at the end of a release than it is to keep quality at “ship-ready” levels throughout the release. In addition, delaying the fixing of defects is almost always a less-efficient approach than fixing them as soon as they’re found.

If you are in the habit of delaying the fixing of defects, and allowing a backlog to accrue, stop creating new functionality and get rid of your current backlog. If you know you have to fix the list of defects, the highest-quality and most efficient approach is to fix them now. When fixed, you can resume building ...