Why Some Critical Bugs Fail to Get Detected & Reported by the Testing Teams?
Believe it or not, developing a bug-free software is a myth!
As we juggle with increasing complexities of the modern virtual world, it is more likely to miss out on some bugs in a software. Studies show that most of the system failures and vulnerabilities are caused due to software bugs. Fixing those vexing and uninvited bugs is more troublesome then writing the whole code.
Any bug leakage in the production may lead to rounds of repeated costs in terms of time and resources and even worse, loss of potential customers and company reputation. But, despite of taking proactive measures and having the best QA and testing teams in-house, some bugs are missed.
Here are the reasons why bugs are missed and how you can prevent them?
#Shorter Deadlines:
Sometimes, due to close deadlines and in a hurry to “ship” the software as soon as possible, testing teams are subjected to pressure. Teams are required to complete the testing either by working overnight or missing some test cases. It’s quite obvious that when you are in a hurry, you overlook things and unfortunately, some critical bugs might get missed.
How to deal with it?
In any case, you cannot take risk by taking the testing process lightly. So, when you have less time, communicate your management to reduce the tests and explain the risk involved. Tell them which testing cycles can be performed and which cannot be performed within the given time frame. Also make them aware about the risks entailed in the testing you are not performing.
#Fail to Detect Critical Bug:
Generally missed bugs are those that are most obvious bugs. These bugs are right in the front of the testers but are missed due to their focus on any specific area. Sometimes using the same route to test a feature can cause a bug-miss.
How to avoid it?
To avoid obvious bugs, the testing teams must be multi-tasking and they should keep their “bug detection” mode switched on every time. Also, apply different techniques while testing a feature in order to avoid any failure.
#Poor Requirement Specification:
There are cases when some significant bugs are overlooked that could have been found out in the very beginning of testing projects. An incomplete or poor Software Requirement Specification does not cover all use case scenarios and consequently testing teams does not examine all those testing scenarios.
How to deal with it?
Comprehensive requirement documentation should be prepared to cover all user case scenarios so that testing team check all the cases properly and can fix a bug before the final stage.
#Procrastination: Bug Detected but Not Reported
Sometimes cases arise when tester finds a bug and delays it to report and fix later. He then switches to some other task and forget to report the bug. Thus, that later gets more delayed and delayed and becomes never. In other cases, testers underestimate the criticality of a bug and ignore to report it.
How to avoid this?
Don’t be too lazy to report a bug. As soon as bug appears, report it in order to avoid testing failures later.
#Test Coverage was Partial:
Bugs are hard to catch and it requires great efforts to discover them. With advancing technology, complexity of software is continuously increasing and so are the hidden bugs. Testing teams may not be aware of some corner cases which results into incomplete test coverage. Also, sometimes due to the emergence to release sprints, it is aforementioned that the system is partially tested.
Keep this in mind:
To detect every small bug, testing team must be good at understanding the system technically. Consider all possible user cases and test the functionality of the software in every user perspective.
Putting It All Together:
Testing a software has never been a trivial task. Testers play role of gatekeepers before passing the product to the end users. So, put yourself in end user’s shoes and review the testing process thoroughly to prevent any bug. These above mentioned stories will help you work well on your user stories and test cases.
