Being Agile: Eleven Breakthrough Techniques to Keep You from “Waterfalling Backward”

Breakthrough

If you want to get into the habit of not accumulating waste, try this technique: Limit defect priorities to just one classification: “Fix it now!”

It is a common practice in waterfall (and even with many agile teams) to assign severities to defects when encountered, store them in backlogs, and then review the backlog periodically with an eye toward deciding which ones need to be fixed and which can be put off until later. If teams are willing to spend the time to find, document, and track defects, why are they not willing to spend the time to actually fix the defects—and preferably at the point in time when the defects are found because it’s a much less wasteful approach?

Prioritizing defects is an old software development practice. ...