What's your bug management process?

Question

What is the lifecycle / process of a bug? Speaking generally, Are there any tips, suggestion process wise that bug fixing should go though?

Answer 1

A few things beyond the standard Find->Fix->Test-Release cycle:

• A bug should have multiple assignments, so it can be assigned to one person for fixing, and another person for testing it, instead of being assigned to a single person.

• Your bug track system must track all history of what was changed.

• Keep track of what version a bug was found in, was fixed in, was tested in, and then was released in. They are all different and important values.

• Have the ability to change an issue from a bug to an enhancement.

• Have a status for "question" or "waiting for answers", to represent questions have been sent to a business analyst, essentially blocking progress on the bug.

• Keep a bug restricted to a single issue, so that you can verify whether that issue is acutally fixed. So if there are 3 things wrong with a screen, log 3 bugs, instead a single of "Issues on the Whatever Screen"; these bugs may be fixed and released individually, and you need to be able to track that.

Answer 2

1. User Reports Bug
2. QA reproduces bug
3. A Dev triages the bug to verify whether it's a bug or a new feature request
4. If it's a bug, it's assigned to a dev
5. QA tests the bug fix in the next release
6. Release