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Getting Your Bugs Fixed

  • Nov 20, 2000
Despite your best efforts at planning and executing your tests, not all the bugs you find will be fixed. Some may be dismissed completely, and others may be deferred or postponed for fixing in a subsequent release of the software. At the time, it may have been a bit discouraging or even frightening to think that such a concept was a possibility.
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Reasons for Not Fixing a Bug

Now that you know a great deal more about software testing, you can see why not fixing all the bugs is a reality. In a nutshell, the reasons for not fixing a bug are

  • There's not enough time. Every project always has too many software features, too few people to code and test them, and not enough room left in the schedule to finish. If you're working on a tax-preparation program, April 15 isn't going to move—you must have your software ready in time.

  • It's really not a bug. Maybe you've heard the phrase, "It's not a bug, it's a feature!" It's not uncommon for misunderstandings, test errors, or spec changes to result in would-be bugs being dismissed as features.

  • It's too risky to fix. Unfortunately, this is all too often true. Software is fragile, intertwined, and sometimes like spaghetti. You might make a bug fix that causes other bugs to appear. Under the pressure to release a product under a tight schedule, it might be too risky to change the software. It may be better to leave in the known bug to avoid the risk of creating new, unknown ones.

  • It's just not worth it. This may sound harsh, but it's reality. Bugs that would occur infrequently or appear in little-used features may be dismissed. Bugs that have workarounds, ways that a user can prevent or avoid the bug, often aren't fixed. It all comes down to a business decision based on risk.

One more item should be added to this list that can often be the contributing reason for all of them:

  • Bugs are reported ineffectively. The tester didn't make a strong enough case that a particular bug should be fixed. As a result, the bug was misunderstood as not being a bug, was deemed not important enough to delay the product, was thought to be too risky to fix, or was just plain considered to not be worth fixing.

NOTE

Because of all the different software development models and possible team dynamics, it's impossible to tell you exactly how the fix/no-fix decision-making process will work for your team or project. In many cases, the decision lies solely with the project manager, in others it's with the programmer, and in others, it's left to a committee.

What is universal, though, is that some person or group of people will review the bugs you report and determine whether they will be fixed. The information you provide that describes the bug is used to make that decision.

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