Bug Triage Meeting –
A meeting held by the CFT**, QA Group, Test Manager, Quality Manager, Project Manager; Product Manager and Testing Leads for any project. The objective of the meeting is to prioritize and track the defects to be addressed, ensuring timely and accurate resolution. During iterative Quality Assurance testing, the QA department logs defects. In Bug Triage, the bugs are prioritized to determine when bug fixes are to be releases, the difficulty of the fix and the difficulty of retest.
[**CFT – Cross Functional Team – An inter-departmental team comprising a Cross-Functional Team Leader and team members representing a network of experienced and knowledgeable staff members. The Cross-Functional Team concept allows staffing levels for each development discipline to increase and decrease at the proper times during the development cycle.]
A bug triage meeting should be held regularly during the construction phase (or testing cycle) of a project. The Quality Assurance (QA) lead calls these meetings. The frequency and the number of occurrences will vary from project to project, but is typically based on the number of defects being reported, the overall project schedule, and the current status of the project (i.e. Red, Yellow, or Green Status).
Prior to the meeting, the QA lead will send out a bug report with the new defects reported in the current iteration. At the meeting, the CFT will reassess the severity and priority of each defect.
At the bug triage meeting, the CFT should also discuss the status of defects that were reported at the previous bug triage meeting.
At the bug triage meeting, each defect should be discussed, even those that are rated at a lower priority. The developer should present the level of complexity and the risk associated with fixing each defect. The CFT can then decide which defects should be addressed immediately or those that can wait for future release.
Triaging a bug involves:
1. Making sure the bug has enough information for the developers and makes sense
2. Making sure the bug is filed in the correct place
3. Making sure the bug has sensible “Severity” and “Priority” fields
DECIDING WHICH DEFECTS TO ADDRESS
To understand which defects to address during a project lifecycle, several factors should be considered:
• If the project is in the early iterations, it is feasible to address as many defects as possible, even the lower priority defects.
• If the project is near completion and its final stages of development and QA (i.e. less than 2 iterations left before completion), the CFT should concentrate on addressing only “A priority” defects or those that have low risk (i.e. the fix is not complex and re-testing is minimal).
BUG TRIAGE TEMPLATE
The QA lead will submit a bug report to the CFT prior to the scheduled Bug Triage meeting. This report will contain (but not limited to) the following fields and should be sorted by Fix Priority:
• ID
• Headline
• Date Reported
• Submitter
• Severity
• Fix Priority
• Owner
• Status
DEFECT TRACKING
During the Bug Triage Meeting, the QA engineer will be required to have running on a laptop or desktop. The QA engineer will make the changes / updates to each defect as it is being discussed. The “Comments” field is updated correctly. capture all changes to the defect entry.
At the conclusion of the meeting, the QA engineer will print a report from Defect Tracking System, capturing the updates. This report will serve as the meeting minutes.
ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES of individuals in Bug Triage Meeting
1. Project Manager
– Assists in the prioritization of the defects
– Sends out meeting minutes when appropriate
– Tracks issues list
– Discusses the delivery date of next iteration to QA.
2. Product Manager
– Assists in the prioritization of the defects.
3. Test Lead (QA Lead)
– Calls the bug triage meeting
– Submits a defect report to the CFT, prior to the start of the meeting
– Assists in the prioritization/severity of the defects
– Assists in determining Root Cause of defect
– Manages defects in CQ
– Distributes updated defect report, capturing the notes from the bug triage meeting.
4. Development Lead and/or Developer
– Assists in the prioritization of the defects (don’t think development sets priority, they should set severity).
– Explains the level of complexity and the risk associated with each defect being presented at the bug triage meeting
– Assigns the defects to the appropriate developer
– Updates Resolution and development notes fields in CQ
– Assists in determining Root Cause of defect
– Discusses the delivery date of next iteration to QA.
5. User Transition Manager
– Ensures that appropriate User Representatives are invited to the bug triage meeting
– Assists in the prioritization of the defects
6. User Representative
– Assists in the prioritization of the defects
OUTPUTS
CFT is aligned on the severity and priority of defects discussed during the bug triage meeting.
EXIT CRITERIA of Bug Triage Meeting
QA lead will distribute the defect list from Defect Management System, capturing the updates.
METRICS –
In the end Bug Triage Metrics are prepared.
Hope this is helpful to all testing professionals in understanding the Bug Triage meeting process.
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