CONFIDENTIAL

Discussion Paper of :Discussion Paper of :

Bug TrackingBug Tracking

Prep.By : Deny PrasetiaPrep.By : Deny Prasetia

January 12th 2013, Rev.00.

PT. Berlian Sistem Informasi

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Outline:

• Introduction• What is a Bug?• What is a Bug Tracking?• Consideration Regarding Bug Tracking• Bug Tracking Tool• Anatomy of Bug• Lifecycle of Bug• Benefit of Bug Tracking Tool• Common Issues of Bug Tracking Tool• What Should You Look For In Bug Tracking Tool• The Most Popular of Bug Tracking Systems (BTS)• Comment & Opinion

I will explain about ….

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Introduction:

What is a "Bug” (read: “Computer/ Software Bug”) ?

Wikipedia offers a good literature:• A computer bug is any problem with a computer, whether caused by

software or hardware. (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_bug)

• Bug (software bug) - an error, flaw, mistake, "undocumented feature", failure, or fault in a computer program that prevents it from behaving as intended (e.g., producing an incorrect result). (source: “A study concerning the bug tracking applications “ – Journal – Prof. Dr. Christian Bac – Telecom Sudparis)

A few of popular understanding:• Bug Tracking - the process of reporting and tracking the progress of

bugs from discovery through to resolution. (source: “A study concerning the bug tracking applications “ – Journal – Prof. Dr. Christian Bac – Telecom Sudparis)

• Bug Tracking System - a software application that is designed to help quality assurance and programmers keep track of reported software bugs in their work (source: http://www.bugzilla.org/docs/)

What is a “Bug Tracking” ?

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Introduction:

• Lesson LearnedBase on team experiences from a real project on PMU Automotive Division during after mid year 2012,

below the following fact were found by team on the last project: • Found limitations “to gather bugs” and “to assign resources” for fixing them, because PM had to

wait ”to make sure” the item of issue• Found difficulties “to manage bug report” (Reproduce/ simplify/ generalize/ analyze)• Found difficulties “to track back of bugs history”

• Bug Communication“Bug Tracking” is not only to keep track of issue or problem to reports and maintain feature requests (if any changes) , but also to coordinate work among developers team, management & customers

General Consideration Regarding “Bug Tracking”

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Bug Tracking Tool:

Anatomy of Bug (Best Practice)

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Bug Tracking Tool: (Cont…)

Bug TrackingBug Tracking

New bugs and enhancements are submitted by Testing

Team

New bugs and enhancements are submitted by Testing

Team

Team leaders set priority to each new issues and assign

specific programmer

Team leaders set priority to each new issues and assign

specific programmer

Programmers fix issues that have been assigned to themProgrammers fix issues that have been assigned to them

System analyst releases a new internal version with the

new features and fixed issues

System analyst releases a new internal version with the

new features and fixed issues

The testing team checks whether all issues that have

been marked as fixed

The testing team checks whether all issues that have

been marked as fixed

The testing team including QA team closes the fixed issues

The testing team including QA team closes the fixed issues

Bug Tracking

Tool

Bug Tracking

Tool

11

22

33

44

55

66

Lifecycle of Bug (Best Practice)

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Bug Tracking Tool: (Cont…)

“If you’re going to write software of any size, you're going to have a few bugs along the way, and you’ll need to keep track of them somehow. If you’re going to track your bugs, you may as well do it right. ” – (source: http://www.bugtracker.com/bug-tracking-guide-best-practices)

Here are some benefit to use Bug Tracking:•Increase visibility of development process•Traceability of bugs and their resolutions•Release planning•Resource scheduling•Prioritization•Improved control of a project•Information consolidation•Improve the quality of your software by increasing productivity•Raise customer satisfaction

Benefit of Bug Tracking Tool

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Bug Tracking Tool: (Cont…)

• Designing workflow or frameworkAn workflow is a diagram that describes the states of the bug or defect from it is created to it is closed.

The first issue deals with the question: How workflow to design with standard framework?

Common Issues of Bug Tracking Tool

StartStart

OpenOpen In ProgressIn Progress

ReopenedReopenedFixedFixed

Create issue

Issue fixed

Reopen issue

Issue fixed

Start progress

Start progress

Reopen issueVerified issue

EndEnd

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Bug Tracking Tool: (Cont…)

• Meaning FieldsThe second issue deals with the following questions: • Which component does this bug fit in ?• What does a "critical" priority mean ?• etc. (undefined)Also, there must be provided descriptions of each component, and a default owner for each component

• One Bug Many ReleasesA very important characteristic of a bug tracking is the methods used in order to track the same bug in different releases

Common Issues of Bug Tracking Tool

Release 1.0

Release 2.0

Release 2.1

Bug Found Bug Fixed

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Bug Tracking Tool: (Cont…)

• Trusting HistoryMany interesting pieces of project information are time-based. For example:• The minimum time necessary to find a bug• The time necessary to fix a bug• The estimative number of bugs delivered with a specific release

Common Issues of Bug Tracking Tool

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Bug Tracking Tool: (Cont…)

• Choosing Bug Tracking Tool• E-mail notifications• File attachments• History Trail• Full Customization• Powerful Reports• Submitting issues• Internet Based• Integrated with other resources • Multiple platform needs? • Cost (tool cost / license ..)?

• Using Bug Tracking Tool• What happen• What the tester thinks should happen instead• Steps to reproduces the problem• How to improve Bug Communication• How to ensure accountability• How to automation & precise reports

What should you look for in bug tracking tool?

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Bug Tracking Tool: (Cont…)

• Open source software• Bugzilla• Ozibug• Flyspray• BugTracker.Net• BugNet• WebIssues• Trac• BugGenie• Eventum• Mantis• GNATS• Redmine• Scarab• PhpBugTracker• Project Open• Etc.

The Most Popular of Bug Tracking Systems (BTS)

• Commercial Software • Inflectra• FogBugz• BugTracker• BugTrack• Zoho BugTracker• Etc.

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Comment & Opinion:

“The most important info that reporter can provide is a way to reliably reproduce the issue”

“The most important info that reporter can provide is a way to reliably reproduce the issue”

“The most annoying problem is too brief bug description”

“The most annoying problem is too brief bug description”

“Incomplete information is the biggest problem …”

“Incomplete information is the biggest problem …”

“Using Bug Report template for bug Description would be

helpful, I think”

“Using Bug Report template for bug Description would be

helpful, I think”

Bug tracking is a fundamental part of the Software Engineering lifecycle process. Effective use of a bug tracking system will lead to a more structured approach throughout the development lifecycle, resulting in a higher quality product while also reducing development and support costs.

Bug Tracking

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Thank for Listening!Questions and war stories about your own bug tracking experiences are welcome…