Symbian for Software Leaders: Principles of Successful Smartphone Development Projects

Chapter 6. Managing defects

Introduction to smartphone defect management

One of the really central items of smartphone project groupware is the defects database – the database of all known or suspected defects in the product. At all stages of the project, team leaders should be spending a substantial amount of their time monitoring and reviewing the material in the defects database. By doing this, they can accelerate the following:

• Identifying and eliminating the most serious defects in the product

• Evaluating the quality level in the product

• Evaluating the quality of work from different teams in the project

• Determining when the product is likely to be ready for release to the market.

Optimal defect management consists of the following subprocesses:

• The initial raising of "incident reports"

• Analysis of these incident reports – to determine if there is an actual product defect

• Prioritization of product defects

• Evaluation of candidate fixes

• Testing of candidate fixes

• Overall review.

The defects database is formed from a large number of "incident reports", which are raised by testers and other team members. (In a healthy project, testing is carried out by a much wider set of people than just the designated full-time testers.) Incidents are raised when someone notices behavior in the product that they consider to be questionable or wrong. An incident report should include:

• A clear statement of the actual behavior observed, as well as what the expected behavior was

• A description of the hardware and ...