Mumbai University > Information Technology > Sem 8 > Software Testing and Quality Assurance

Marks: 5M

Defect Life Cycle:

Status Associated with defects are:

1. New: When a defect is found for the first time, the software tester communicates it to his/her team leader (Test Leader) in order to confirm if that is a valid defect. After getting confirmation from the Test Lead, the software tester logs the defect and the status of ‘New’ is assigned to the defect.
2. Open: Once the developer starts working on the defect, he/she changes the status of the defect to ‘Open’ to indicate that he/she is working on it to find a solution.
3. Fixed: Once the developer makes necessary changes in the code and verifies the code, he/she marks the defect as ‘Fixed’ and passes it over to the Development Lead in order to pass it to the Testing team.
4. Pending Retest: After the defect is fixed, it is passed back to the testing team to get retested and the status of ‘Pending Retest’ is assigned to it.
5. Closed: After the defect is assigned a status of ‘Retest’, it is again tested. If the problem is solved, the tester closes it and marks it with ‘Closed’ status.
6. Reopen: If after retesting the software for the defect opened, if the system behaves in the same way or same defect arises once again, then the tester reopens the defect and again sends it back to the developer marking its status as ‘Reopen’.
7. Rejected: If the Testing Leader finds that the system is working according to the specifications or the defect is invalid as per the explanation from the development, he/she rejects the defect and marks its status as ‘Rejected’.
8. Postponed: Sometimes, testing of a particular defect has to be postponed for an indefinite period. This situation may occur because of many reasons, such as unavailability of Test data, unavailability of particular functionality etc. That time, the defect is marked with ‘Postponed’ status.
9. Deferred: In some cases a particular defect stands no importance and is needed to be avoided, that time it is marked with ‘Deferred’ status.

There are seven different life cycles that a defect can pass through:

Cycle I

1. A tester finds a defect and reports it to the Test Lead.
2. The test lead verifies if the defect is valid or not.
3. Test lead finds that the defect is not valid and the defect is 'Rejected'.

Cycle II

1. A tester finds a defect and reports it to the Test Lead.
2. The test lead verifies if the defect is valid or not.
3. The defect is verified and reported to the development team with status as 'New'.
4. The development leader and team verify if it is a valid defect. The defect is invalid and is marked with a status of 'Pending Reject' before passing it back to the testing team.
5. After getting a satisfactory reply from the development side, the test leader marks the defect as 'Rejected'.

Cycle III

1. A tester finds a defect and reports it to the Test Lead.
2. The test lead verifies if the defect is valid or not.
3. The defect is verified and reported to the development team with status as 'New'.
4. The development leader and team verify if it is a valid defect. The defect is valid and the development leader assigns a developer to it, marking the status as 'Assigned'.
5. The developer solves the problem and marks the defect as 'Fixed' and passes it back to the Development leader.
6. The development leader changes the status of the defect to 'Pending Retest' and passes it on to the testing team for retest.
7. The test leader changes the status of the defect to 'Retest' and passes it to a tester for retest.
8. The tester retests the defect and if it is working fine, the tester closes the defect and marks it as 'Closed'.

Cycle IV

1. A tester finds a defect and reports it to the Test Lead.
2. The test lead verifies if the defect is valid or not.
3. The defect is verified and reported to the development team with status as 'New'.
4. The development leader and team verify if it is a valid defect. If the defect is valid, the development leader assigns a developer for it, marking the status as 'Assigned'.
5. The developer solves the problem and marks the defect as 'Fixed' and passes it back to the Development leader.
6. The development leader changes the status of the defect to 'Pending Retest' and passes it on to the testing team for retest.
7. The test leader changes the status of the defect to 'Retest' and passes it to a tester for retest.
8. The tester retests the defect and the same problem persists, so the tester after confirmation from test leader reopens the defect and marks it with a 'Reopen' status. And then, the defect is passed back to the development team for fixing.

Cycle V

1. A tester finds a defect and reports it to the Test Lead.
2. The test lead verifies if the defect is valid or not.
3. The defect is verified and reported to the development team with status as 'New'.
4. The developer tries to verify if the defect is valid but fails to replicate the same scenario as it was at the time of testing, and asks for help from the testing team.
5. The tester also fails to regenerate the scenario in which the defect was found. And finally, the developer rejects the defect marking it as 'Rejected'.

Cycle VI

1. After confirmation that the data is unavailable or certain functionality is unavailable, the solution and retest of the defect is postponed for indefinite time and it is marked as 'Postponed'.

Cycle VII

1. If the defect does not stand importance and needs to be postponed, then it is given a status as 'Deferred'. This was about the various life cycles that a defect goes through in software testing. And in the ways mentioned above, any defect that is found ends up with a status of Closed, Rejected, Deferred or Postponed.