Procedure for Processing a Defect Action through its Lifecycle

This task shows you how to evaluate a Defect Action.

1. When a Defect is promoted to the Open state, a single Defect Action is created in the Evaluate state. Additional Defect Actions can be created from the Defect Actions category for the Defect. See Creating a Defect Action.

   Note: The actions in this section can be taken when the Defect Action is in any state.

2. The Change Board evaluates the Defect Action in relation to other Defect Actions. If this Defect Action:

   • Cannot be fixed until another Defect Action is resolved, uses Actions > Mark as Dependent Of.
   • If other Defects cannot be fixed until this Defect is resolved, uses Actions > Add Existing Dependent.
   • If the work defined by the Defect Action affects other objects other than the Product against which it was reported, uses Actions > Add Affected Item to add those objects.

   See Viewing Defect Action Details for help with these actions.

3. The Change Board determines if the work defined by the Defect Action should be included in a current Product revision, or committed for fixing in a future Model release and updates the Defect using one of these methods:

   • If a current product, uses Actions > Commit for Product, selects the Product where the fix will be implemented.
   • If a future product, uses Actions > Mark as Candidate to select the Model.

   See Viewing Defect Action Details for details on these Actions.

4. The Change Board assigns the Defect Action to an action assignee and a quality assignee. The action assignee can be a software developer, hardware developer, UI designer, technical writer, or any other job function required. The person, however, must be assigned the Development Engineer role. See Assigning a Defect Action.

5. (Optional) If the Defect Action is a software change, creates an Implementation Review to manage the files being created or updated. See Initiating an Implementation Review.

   The Implementation Review must be complete before the Defect Action can be promoted to Closed.

6. The Change Board promotes the Defect Action to the Open state.

This task shows you how to open a Defect Action.

1. The Action Assignee works on the Defect Action.

2. If more information is required, the Action Assignee demotes the Defect Action to the Evaluate state. See Demoting a Defect Action.

3. To define the build that includes the work defined by the Defect Action, the Action Assignee uses Actions > Mark as Available in Build, selects the build of the product where the fix will be implemented. See Viewing Defect Action Details.

4. When the development work is complete, the Action Assignee checks in any Reference Documents to support the fix, and promotes the Defect Action to the Test state. See Testing a Defect Action.

This task shows you how to test a Defect Action.

1. The Quality Assignee tests the work done to resolve the Defect Action. If the work done did not resolve the problem, or created another problem, demotes the Defect Action to the Open state. See Demoting a Defect Action.

2. If an Implementation Review was created, the Quality Assignee (or another person with access) promotes it to Complete. See Editing an Implementation Review. The Defect Action cannot be promoted to Closed until the Implementation Review is promoted to Complete.

3. When all problems are resolved and the fix is verified, the Quality Assignee promotes the Defect Action to the Closed state. See Closing a Defect Action.