This document outlines a process for defect root cause analysis with the following goals: 1) Control defect costs and delivery through early defect elimination to save budget. 2) Contract with the team to map potential defects to root causes and SDLC phases. 3) Mine data to accurately define defect root causes and focus on solving real problems by adjusting team process and prevention strategies, then monitoring progress to ensure effectiveness.

1. DEFECT ROOT CAUSE
ANALYSIS

2. Definition
Defect costs
control
Defect
elimination
optimization
Defects
retrospective
analysis

3. Goal 1. Be in time
Start Week 1 Week 2 Week 3
Lag 0 12 31
Scope 349 299 89
Scope + AVG ∆ 409 359 149
Etalon 409 347 118 0
Lag, 12
Lag, 31
0
100
200
300
400
RemainingMan-hours Team Commitment Burndown
control
𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐞 + 𝐀𝐕𝐆 ∆ = 𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐞 + 𝐔𝐧𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐞 + Estimation Deviation

4. Goal 1. Defect costs control
Unplanned Scope
Defects
Report Fix Fix test
Impact
test
CQ
comments
Merge

5. Goal 2. Defect Potentials
Requirements defects, 750
Document defects, 250
Architecture defects, 150
Design defects, 1000
Code defects, 1350
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
Number of Bugs per 1000 Functional Points

6. Goal 2. Cost per Defect
Defect found during
requirements, $250
Defect found during
design, $500 Defect found during coding
and testing, $1,250
Defect found after release, $5,000
Cost per Defect

7. Step 1. Contract with Team
Requirements defects, 750
Document defects, 250
Architecture defects, 150
Design defects, 1000
Code defects, 1350
Defect Potentials / 1K FP
Requirements inconsistency, 22
Requirements misunderstanding, 6
Inaccurate analysis/investigation, 48
Lack of dev testing, 49
Change's impacted area, 56
Defect root cause / 18 SPR

8. Step 1. Contract with Team
PLANNING
•REQ testing
DEVELOPMENT > DESIGN
•REQ (TESTED) analysis
•Product knowledge mapping with REQ
•Related components investigation
•New functionality vision (incl. all use cases) → DEV MODEL
DEVELOPMENT > IMPLEMENTATION
•Coding
•Integration
DEVELOPMENT > DEV TESTING
•Implementation == DEV MODEL
REQ INCOSISTENCY
REQ MISUNDERSTANDING
LACK OF PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE
INACURATE ANALYSIS
CHANGE IMPACT AREA
LACK OF DEV TESTING

9. Step 2. Data mining
Target Defects
Current
Sprint
Defect
Old
Defect
UAT
Defect
Defect Root Causes
Test Engineer
Architect /
Code reviewer /
Code writer

10. Step 3. Focus

11. Step 3. Focus
Defect Root Cause Reason(s) of leading
SPR1
Change's impacted area:
16 bugs
Team completely re-writes the whole
component → such amount of defects is
expectable taking into account poor coverage of
component with automated tests
Inaccurate analysis/investigation:
11 bugs
Team has bad awareness in component they
develop. There is no ‘big picture’ vision of it
SPR3
Lack of dev testing:
6 bugs
DEV team has sacrificed with testing, deep
analysis and pre-study in favor of ALL business
value delivery
Inaccurate analysis/investigation:
5 bugs

12. Step 4. Response
Defect Root Cause Prevention strategy
SPR1
Change's impacted area:
16 → 1 bugs
Increase coverage of core functionality with
unit- and integration tests
Inaccurate analysis/investigation:
11 → 5 bugs
Get ‘big picture’ vision of new functionality at
the very beginning of the sprint by means of
new functionality pre-study
SPR3
Lack of dev testing:
6 → 2 bugs
Follow top-down approach
Inaccurate analysis/investigation:
5 → 3 bugs

13. Step 5. Monitor
1 1
3
2
3
5
1
1
2 2
3 1
11
5
5
4
3
1
1
1
2
2
1
2
6
2
2
1
2
3
4
3
3
16
9
1
10
2
1
1
4 3
32
22
16
24
8
4
6
5
11 11
5
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
M.SPR1 M.SPR2 M.SPR3 M.SPR4 M.SPR5 M.SPR6 M.SPR7 M.SPR8 M.SPR9.1 M.SPR9.2 M.SPR10
Defect root cause | per-Sprint
Incorrect / Incomplete deployment
Change's impacted area
Lack of dev testing
Inaccurate analysis/investigation
Internal miscommunication
Requirements misunderstanding
Requirements inconsistency
Lack of business/product knowledge
Total
Log. (Total)

14. Step 5. Monitor
5 8
13 14 14 15 15 17 19 19
3
4 4
5 5 5
4
4 4 4
4 4
4 4 4
11
16
21
25
28 29
30 31
31
33 35
3
9
11
13
14
16
19
23
26
29
16
25
26
36
38
39
39
40
44
47
47
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
M.SPR1 M.SPR2 M.SPR3 M.SPR4 M.SPR5 M.SPR6 M.SPR7 M.SPR8 M.SPR9.1 M.SPR9.2 M.SPR10
Defect root cause | accumulative
Incorrect / Incomplete deployment Change's impacted area
Lack of dev testing Inaccurate analysis/investigation
Internal miscommunication Requirements misunderstanding
Requirements inconsistency Lack of business/product knowledge

15. Self-control
Goals > Do you need Defect RCA?
> On which SDLC phase you need Defect RCA?
Contract > Does Root Cause List optimal?
Data mining > Does Root Causes defined correctly?

16. Summary
GOALS
Defect costs control → Delivery control
Early defect elimination → Budget saving
CONTRACT
Defect RC ↔ Defect Potentials
Defect RC ↔ SDLC phases
DATA MINING
You are Chief Defect RCA Officer
FOCUS
Solve only real problems
RESPONSE
Adjust team and process
MONITOR
Make sure you were right
SELF-CONTROL
Double-check