What is Bug/Defect Triage?

Once the test execution of project is initiated by tester and started reporting the bugs then the bug triage meeting should be held based on the bugs reported by the tester. The attendee for Bug Triage meeting should be QA Lead, Development Lead and Project Manager. Test lead should make easy bug triage meeting with the bug tracking system; however the prerequisite for Bug Triage meeting is bugs are logged under Bug Tracking System for triage.

The Bug Triage meeting should be facilitated by QA lead and this meeting should be conducted in testing phase of the SDLC. The frequency of the meeting is vary from projects to projects and it is to be decided based on the how many bugs are logged by the testers and how many new bugs are being logged by the testing team. The aim of this meeting is to take action on most important or critical bugs first and not concentrated much to fix non-important bugs first.

Before the meeting the QA lead should send the report to all attendees of the meeting which are newly reported or not yet triaged bugs. Therefore the triage meeting attendees will get the current status of the non-triaged defects and based on this input bug triage meeting can be started. In this meeting attendees also discuss about the status of the bugs triaged in the prior meetings or if any queries facing by team members. They can also re-evaluate the severity and priority of earlier evaluated defects as well.

In the Bug triage meeting QA lead should have access laptop or desktop access to defect tracking system. Each and every defect is discussed in this meeting and decides the priority and severity of the defect. All discussion should be captured and add appropriate comments in the defects. If any defect is more complex then developer can also attend this meeting to understand the risk and complexity associated with the defect. The meetings attendees are decide which defect is to address first and which can wait till for future release.

What should be involved while triaging a bug:

1. Check if the enough information is provided in the defect by tester in such a way that developer can understand the defect without any problem. If not then triage team can reassign the defect to reporter and ask for the additional information which helps out to understand the defect.
2. Check if defect is logged under correct project and module.
3. Many companies are used to review and assign the priority to defect, however good triage process is to assign or modify the defect severity as well. Check if appropriate “Severity” and “Priority” fields are marked for the bug.
4. Bug Triage Meetings are project meetings in which open bugs are divided into categories: bugs to fix now, bugs to fix later, and bugs we’ll never fix.

How to decide which defect should be address first in SDLC?

When there are lots of new defects logged by testers then developer should not fix the defects randomly. Now you have question in mind that which defects should be fixed by developer first. So answer to this question is based on the Priority and Severity assigned to bug. There are few factors which considered in the Bug Triage, if the project is in early stage of SDLC then it might be possible to address lower priority and high priority defects as well. However if the project nearing to completion stage then Bug triage team should address first High Priority defects and the defects do have low risk to fix because fixing complex defects involved detailed testing which may introduce regression issues.

Bug triage meeting roles & responsibilities:

1. QA Lead (Test Lead)– Scheduled bug triage meetingand send meeting request for attendees.
   – Prepare a defect report and send it to all attendees before meeting started.
   – Give a hand in assigning Priority and Severity of the defects.
   – Help out in meeting to understand and formative the Root Cause of defect.
   – In the defect tracking system Manages, all defects should be updated with comment if required any inputs to developers.
   – Every meeting note should be captured and send it across to meeting attendees.
2. Development Lead
   – Help out in meeting for prioritization of the defects.
   – Discuss and put the level of defect difficulty in plain words and explain the risk involved with the defect.
   – Allocate of defects to relevant developerfor fixing.
   – Update the defect resolution and add development notes if any information is missing or any relevant information needs to provide to developer.
   – Give a hand to analyze the root cause of defect and it resolution if any.
3. Project Manager
   – Help out in meeting for prioritization of the defects.
   – Whenever required send the MOM (Minutes of meeting)
   – Issue list tracking
   – Talk about the next iteration release date for QA.
   – Ensures that appropriate User Representatives are invited to the bug triage meeting

What is Exit Criteria of Bug Triage Meeting?

Each and every unsigned defects is discussed in the bug triage meeting and assigned Severity and Priority of defects. The next step will be setting up the assignee of defect. Each and every action will be tracked by QA lead in the Defect Tracking System. End of the every bug triage meeting Bug Triage Metrics will be prepared and share with meeting attendees.

Conclusion

When the new defect is logged by tester then every defect should be triaged in the Bug Triage meeting. In this meeting bugs are discussed amoungs meeting attendees and assigned in the defect is category like bugs to fix now, bugs to fix later, and bugs we’ll never fix.  In several job interviews there are several questions are asked on Bug Triage process to ensure that tester understand the and clear picture of such testing concepts.