Recently I’ve been working with Andy Glover (a.k.a. the Cartoon Tester) on an article for the Testing Planet. It’s on a topic that affects us all regardless of the software development process we follow (Waterfall, RUP, XP, Scrum or some other flavour of Agile). That topic is the existence of bugs within the software we are developing and the many consequences brought about by not fixing bugs as soon as they are discovered. 10 consequences are discussed in total, but not wanting to give too much away, I’ll leave you with a brief extract to whet your appetite.
“If a bug is left to fester in the software you are developing, configuring or maintaining it may camouflage other bugs, demotivate the team by suggesting quality isn’t important, become the topic of pointless conversations, cause duplicate effort, lead to incorrect project metrics, distract the project team, hinder short-notice releases, invalidate estimates and lead to unnecessary frustration. And the longer you leave a bug before fixing it, the more likely these things are to occur and to a greater extent.”
The next edition of the Testing Planet is due out in March, but you can pre-order your copy now. Past editions are also available to view online.
[Update: 09-02-2012] I have added the picture below in response to Joe Strazzere’s comment. His ideas are unlikely to make it into the final version, but he makes a noteworthy comment that is worth expanding on here (see also my comment response below).
