Defect process flow software#
Defect process flow code#

The facilitator can be the software development project leader (wearing another hat of responsibility) or any member of the team. Most of the activities of the defect prevention methodology require a facilitator. The methodology is aimed at providing the organization a long-term solution and the maturity to learn from mistakes. These preventive measures, after consent and commitments from team members, are embedded into the organization as a baseline for future projects.

The vital process of the defect prevention methodology is to analyze defects to get their root causes, to determine a quick solution and preventive action. The processes that form the integral part of the defect prevention methodology are on the white background. The blocks and processes in the gray-colored block represent the handling of defects within the existing philosophy of most of the software industry – defect detection, tracking/documenting and analysis of defects for arriving at quick, short-term solutions. Figure 2: Defect Prevention Cycle (Source: 1998 IEEE Software Productivity Consortium)

Defect process flow code#

Software architecture is designed, code review and testing are done to find out the defects, followed by defect logging and documentation. The integral part of the defect prevention process begins with requirement analysis – translating the customer requirements into product specifications without introducing additional errors. How does a defect prevention mechanism work? The answer is in a defect prevention cycle (Figure 2). Defect prevention is a framework and ongoing process of collecting the defect data, doing root cause analysis, determining and implementing the corrective actions and sharing the lessons learned to avoid future defects. Figure 1: Relative Costs to Fix Software Defects (Source: IBM Systems Sciences Institute)Ĭan software defects be prevented by simply logging them into some “defect tracking tool/system,” documenting them and providing fixes for them? The obvious answer is no, though this is the first step toward defect prevention.ĭefect prevention involves a structured problem-solving methodology to identify, analyze and prevent the occurrence of defects. The Systems Sciences Institute at IBM has reported that the cost to fix an error found after product release was four to five times as much as one uncovered during design, and up to 100 times more than one identified in the maintenance phase (Figure 1). The National Institute of Standard Technology (NIST) published a study in 2002 noting that the cost of fixing one bug found in the production stage of software is 15 hours compared to five hours of effort if the same bug were found in the coding stage. Advantage of Early Defect Detectionĭata to support the need for early fixes of software defects is supplied by several reports. This fact alone, without consideration of providing the quality needed to please customers, shows the value of preventing software defects. How serious are defects in software development? In the United States, up to 60 percent of software developers are involved in fixing errors, Computer Finance Magazine reported in 1998. The end result in prevention or early detection is a product with zero or minimal defects. Thus, defects cause software to fail to meet requirements and make customers unhappy.Īnd when a defect gets through during the development process, the earlier it is diagnosed, the easier and cheaper is the rectification of the defect. These attributes include complete and correct requirements and specifications as drawn from the desires of potential customers. Defects, as defined by software developers, are variances from a desired attribute. “Prevention is better than cure” applies to defects in the software development life cycle as well as illnesses in medical science.