Managing the Testing Process: Practical Tools and Techniques for Managing Hardware and Software Testing

4.9. Case Study

Prior to my team getting involved in the loan processing application project discussed in the case study for Chapter 2, another team ran a test project against a previous release of the application. The test project ran from August 20 to November 12. The case study bug metrics document, "Case Study Loan Processing Bug Metrics.xls," is available at www.rexblackconsulting.com. Please note that, due to a lack of root cause data, only three of the four charts mentioned in this chapter are shown.

The opened/closed chart in Figure 4.25 resembles Figure 4.19, and this was indeed the situation: the bug reports just never stopped coming. A number of factors contributed to the inability of the project team to stabilize the system's quality. One was frequent change in the requirements. Another was excessive regression; for example, one bug report was re-opened 10 times. Another was too-frequent (daily and sometimes hourly) test releases, which prevented the test team from getting through the planned tests. Ultimately, the release was cancelled in lieu of the subsequent project, which was the one my team worked on.

I thank my client on this project, a major mid-western financial institution, and the executive in charge of development for allowing me to share this example with readers of this book. I have purged all identifying and otherwise private information from this document. My client contact has asked that the organization remain anonymous.

Figure 4.25. Case study opened/ ...