Best Practices for software quality measurement and tracking, including defect tracking
Airlie Software Council Best Practices Number 7: Defect Tracking - The Airlie Software Council identified nine (9) Principal Best Practices observed to be used by the software industry, and deemed essential for nearly all software development projects. The Council was formed in 1992 and included participation from the best and some of the most recognized experts in software from industrial and academic environments.
Best Practice Number 7 is "Defect Tracking Against Quality Targets".
Defects should be tracked formally at each project phase or activity. Configuration management (CM) enables each defect to be recorded and traced through to removal. In this approach there is no such thing as a private defect, that is, one detected and removed without being recorded. Initial quality targets (expressed, for example, in defects per function point) as well as to counts defects removed in order to track progress during testing activities.
DACS Gold Practice GP28: Defect Tracking Against Quality Targets - Defect tracking against quality targets entails recording defects in a database; following a documented process to analyze, resolve, and remove them; tracking the process; measuring defects against quality targets; and reporting metrics on the process to program management.
SPMN Best Practice 5: Track Defects Against Quality Targets - The SPMN was established in 1992 by the Assistant Secretary of the Navy to identify proven industry and government software best practices and convey these practices to managers of large-scale DoD system acquisition programs. The SPMN 16 Critical Software PracticesTM specifically address underlying cost and schedule drivers that have caused many software intensive systems to be delivered over budget, behind schedule and with significant performance shortfalls. Practice Number 5 is Track Defects Against Quality Targets. Details can be found on the SPMN web site listed below.
DACS Gold Practice Initiative
