The document discusses a problem tracking system designed for testers to report and manage bugs, emphasizing its importance in ensuring accountability and communication within a project. It outlines the workflow of reporting, evaluating, and fixing bugs, and highlights challenges like project manager frustrations and the need for accurate status reporting. The main objectives include tracking problems effectively and ensuring that no errors go unfixed due to communication failures or oversight.

1. THE PROBLEM
TRACKING SYSTEM
Sonali Chawla
AU124060202002P

2. INTRODUCTION
 Tester’s primary work product - problem reports
 Use of problem tracking system
 Report bugs
 File bugs
 File retrieval
 Write summaries

3. The key problem with tracking system
 The system introduces project accountability
 As the system is used, significant personal and control
issues surface
 The system can monitor individual performance
 The system provides ammunition for cross-group wars
Benefits of good tracking system
 Improvements in communication and accountability
 Get bugs fixed

4. PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF PROBLEM TRACKING
SYSTEM
 Track the problem
 Get bugs fixed
 Other objectives are compatible with the prime objectives
THE TASK OF THE SYSTEM
The designer and her management must ensure:
 Anyone who needs to know about problem should learn of it
soon after it’s reported.
 No error will go unfixed merely because someone forgot about
it
 No error will go unfixed on the whim of a single programmer.
 A minimum of errors will go unfixed merely because of poor
communication.

5. PROBLEM TRACKING OVERVIEW
 The Problem gets Reported
 The Reports goes to the Project Manager
 She would evaluate the report, add comments to it and pass it
to programmers
 She would try to reproduce the problem
 She would send the report back for more details
 She would mark it deferred or as designed
 The Project manager sends the Report to the
Programmers
 When the problem is (allegedly) fixed
 Irreproducible Problems
 Deferrals and the appeal process
 Problems that aren’t being process
 Project Status Reports

6. USERS OF TRACKING SYSTEM
 The Lead Testers
 The Other Testers
 The Project Manager
Project manager gets frustrated:
 When they don’t get answer in a timely manner
 When bug fixes aren’t tested for days or weeks
 When they see the same deferred problems coming back time after
time
 When the database is stuffed with trivia or repetitious reports
 When published summary statistics showing the number of
outstanding bugs include many that are fixed
 When inaccurate summaries of the bug status are published
 When overly simplistic summary reports circulate to senior
management
 Whenever any information from the database is used to attack

7.  The Programmer
 The Product Manager
 Technical Support
 The Writer
 The Test Manager
Questions to consider:
 Who’s reporting more bugs, the testers, writers, technical
support staff, or the project manager?
 Does the pattern in the number of problems reported per week
by each tester make sense?

8.  Senior Manager
Management-worthy bugs include:
 Program behavior that will embarrass the company
 Failure of the program to provide a core benefit that is either
being advertised or that a reasonable customer would always
expect
 Program behavior that will seriously anger a reasonable
person
 Lawyers

9. MECHANICS OF THE DATABASE
 Reporting New Problems
 Weekly Status Reports
 End of a Testing Cycle
 Resolved and Unresolved Problems
 Deferred Problems
 Progress Summaries
 When Development is Complete
 Reopen Deferred Bugs for next release
 Tracking Patches

10. FURTHER THOUGHTS ON PROBLEM REPORTING
 Exercising Judgment
 Similar Reports
 Allowing for Divergent Views
 Severity vs. Priority
 Treat as Deferred
 Comments in the comments section
 The appeal process
 Resolved vs. Closed
 Never reword a report
 Don’t filter reports that you disagree with
 Internal Details

11. THANK YOU