As an application tester for over a decade, I‘ve seen a bug or two…thousand. Defects can completely undermine software quality if teams don‘t properly log, diagnose, and squash them. The bug life cycle is the end-to-end process used to track a defect from detection to resolution. Streamlining this process saves development costs, improves product reliability, and enhances customer satisfaction over time.
In this guide, I‘ll use my industry knowledge to walk you through each phase of the cycle. I‘ll also provide pro tips to help optimize workflows based on lessons learned over years of quality assurance work. With some discipline around defect tracking, your team can achieve up to 50% faster resolution times according to research by Capgemini. Now let‘s get into the nitty-gritty details!
Bug Life Cycle Stages
Every bug has a "life story" comprised of distinct stages from birth to death. Familiarizing yourself with the key phases will help you become a bug annihilation expert:
1. New
A tester discovers a bug during test execution. It could occur while manually checking functionality or when a test case fails. The defect then gets logged as a new ticket in a tracking system like Jira.
2. Assigned
A lead reviews the bug report then assigns it to a developer to diagnose and resolve based on priority.
3. Open/Active
The developer analyzes the root cause and sets status to "Open" or "Active" indicating they are working on a fix.
4. Fixed
The dev believes they‘ve resolved the bug and submits updated code to the repository. Bug status is changed to "Fixed."
5. Retest
A tester verifies the fix by re-running the failing test cases. About 20% of bugs return during this phase.
6. Reopen
If the bug still occurs during retest, it gets reopened and assigned back to engineering.
7. Verified
Upon retesting, the tester confirms the latest changes have permanently eradicated the defect.
8. Closed
With no further issues, the bug is officially stamped out and marked as closed.
9. Rejected
If the developer decides the behavior is intended or cannot reproduce it, they reject the report.
10. Duplicate
Devs set status to duplicate when a defect matches an existing open ticket.
Appropriately tracking through each milestone prevents critical regressions down the road. However, optimizing communication, tools, and processes makes this cycle even more effective.
Why an Optimized Life Cycle Matters
Streamlining your defect tracking workflows allows your team to reach resolution faster. Industry research indicates:
- Companies see $1.25 billion spent annually on debugging bugs (Stripe)
- Teams waste over 50% of time fixing preventable bugs (ThinkTesting)
- Optimized life cycles result in 70% faster bug resolution (Atlassian)
Given these staggering statistics, it‘s essential to hone your processes. By establishing severity levels, integrating tools, and improving communication, you end up shipping higher quality products.
Best Practices for Optimization
Here are some top techniques for smoothing out defects tracking in your organization:
Set Severity Levels
- Classify bugs based on how severely they impact operations using a scale like:
- Critical – App crash/data loss
- High – Major workflow impacted
- Medium – Minor feature defect
- Low – Superficial/cosmetic
This allows prioritization of the bugs that matter most.
Integrate Systems
- Connect your tracking solution to platforms teams use daily like Jira, GitHub, Trello etc. This centralizes bug management alongside other tasks.
Standardize Reporting
- Create a standard template for reports including steps to reproduce, test case data, screenshots etc. to simplify diagnosis
Bridge Communication Gaps
- Provide comment threads on tickets for collab between testers and developers to resolve questions
Analyze Metrics Regularly
- Track metrics like time-to-resolution, bug backlog size, and reopen rates to catch inefficiencies
By routinely inspecting your processes, you plug holes leading to poorer reliability and user experience.
Expanding Your Defect Toolkit
A robust bug tracking platform is essential for organizing defects efficiently. Integrations with systems engineering already uses combines the best workflows of multiple tools.
For example, BrowserStack offers built-in integration with:
Jira – Dedicated issue tracking helps log bugs linked to specific requirements or user stories for traceability. Teams readily track progress as issues move from "Reported" to "Fixed."
GitHub – Developers can reference bug IDs directly in commit comments when pushing fixes. This automatically relates code changes to the bugs they address for the contextual trail.
Trello – Shared boards make it simple to coordinate defect triaging, assignment, diagnosis etc. in customizable workflows with attachments and comments.
Slack – enable real-time identification and submission of defects in channels every member can see to start diagnosis quickly.
These native connections remove friction from daily defect management.
Writing Reproducible Bug Reports
The quality of your report drastically improves reproducibility for developers. Follow these guidelines:
Document Steps to Reproduce
- Provide the exact steps to reliably recreate the bug again, including any environmental setup
Describe Expected Behavior
- Explain what should happen upon completing steps if bug wasn‘t present
Capture Media
- Include screenshots, videos, GIFs etc. depicting defect visually
Track Bug Origin
- Note OS, browser, device, app version etc. where bug occurs
Suggest Severity Rating
- Recommend criticality based on your industry expertise to guide prioritization
With clear evidence and expectations, engineers can initiate patching smoothly.
Bug Priority vs. Severity
Two important classifications guide scheduling:
Priority – Indicates importance of fixing issue rapidly based on:
- User visibility/frequency
- Impact on key workflows
- Revenue/conversion effects
Severity – Describes technical intensity of defect:
- App crash/failure
- Data corruption
- Security flaws
Teams logically tackle urgent, destructive bugs first. Discuss ratings with devs to ensure alignment.
Common Cross-Browser Bugs
Testing across browsers frequently uncovers browser-dependent bugs like:
- Display distortions from faulty CSS
- JavaScript errors breaking features
- Browser security blocks on API access
- Missing browser compatibility code
- Layout failures on mobile browsers
Running regression suites across Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Edge catches these before your customers do. Leveraging a cloud platform like BrowserStack Live provides instant access to test across 2000+ real browser and OS combos at scale.
Triumph Over Tricky Defects
In summary, optimizing your entire bug life cycle sets up smoother identification, communication, diagnosis, and remediation workflows. Prioritizing the bugs that matter, integrating daily tools, resolving reporting gaps, and continually self-analyzing unlocks superior defect resolution rates. With some concerted effort, your team can ship substantially higher-quality products release over release.
As a tester, you play a crucial role in kickstarting this cycle upon discovery, relaying steps to reproduce, retesting fixes and confirming closures. Together with developers, let‘s unleash better software experiences by taking the fight to each bug!
