Software Testing - Bugs and Statuses Used During a Bug Life Cycle
Nilesh Parekh
In this story, we shall find out what a bug or an error is in software testing, and what are the various statuses of a bug life cycle implemented to resolve it.
The main purpose behind any software development process is to provide the client (final/end user of the software product) with a complete solution, which will help him in managing his business/work in a cost-effective and efficient way. A software product developed is considered successful if it satisfies all the requirements stated by the end user.
Any software development process is incomplete if the most important phase: 'testing' of the developed product is excluded. Software testing is a process carried out in order to find out and fix previously undetected bugs/errors in the software product. It helps in improving the quality of the software product and making it secure for the client to use.
What is a Bug/Error? A bug or an error in the software product is any exception that can hinder the functionality of either the whole software or a part of it.
How Do I Find a Bug/Error? Basically, test cases/scripts are run in order to find out any unexpected behavior of the software product under test. If any such unexpected behavior or exception occurs, it is called a bug.
What is a Test Case? A test case is a noted/documented set of steps/activities, that are carried out or executed on the software in order to confirm its functionality/behavior to a certain set of inputs.
What Do I Do if I Find a Bug/Error? In normal terms, if a bug or error is detected in a system, it needs to be communicated to the developer in order to get it fixed.
Right from the first time that a bug is detected till the point when the bug is fixed and closed, it is assigned various statuses which are New, Open, Postpone, Pending Retest, Retest, Pending Reject, Reject, Deferred, and Closed.
Please note that there are various ways to communicate the bug to the developer and track the bug status.
Statuses Associated with a Bug
New When a bug is found/revealed for the first time, the software tester communicates it to his/her team leader (Test Leader) in order to confirm if it is a valid bug. After getting confirmation from the Test Lead, the software tester logs the bug and the status of 'New' is assigned to it.
Assigned After the bug is reported as 'New', it comes to the Development Team. The development team verifies if the bug is valid. If the bug is valid, the development leader assigns it to a developer to fix it and a status of 'Assigned' is given to it.
Open Once the developer starts working on the bug, he/she changes the status of the bug to 'Open' to indicate that he/she is working on it to find a solution.
Fixed Once the developer makes necessary changes in the code to fix the error and verifies the it, he/she marks the bug as 'Fixed' and passes it over to the development lead in order to pass it to the testing team.
Pending Retest After the bug is fixed, it is passed back to the testing team to get retested and the status of 'Pending Retest' is assigned to it.
Retest The testing team leader changes the status of the bug, which is previously marked with 'Pending Retest' to 'Retest' and assigns it to a tester for retesting.
Closed After the bug 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.
Reopen If after retesting the software for the bug opened, the system behaves in the same way or the same bug arises once again, then the tester reopens the bug, and again sends it back to the developer marking its status as 'Reopen'.
Pending Reject If the developers think that a particular behavior of the system, which the tester reports as a bug has to be same and the bug is invalid, the bug is rejected and marked as 'Pending Reject'.
Rejected If the testing leader finds that the system is working according to the specifications or the bug is invalid as per the explanation from the development, he/she rejects the bug and marks its status as 'Rejected'.
Postponed Sometimes, testing of a particular bug 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. In such cases, the bug is marked with the 'Postponed' status.
Deferred In some cases, a particular bug stands no importance and is needed to be/can be avoided, and so it is marked with a 'Deferred' status.