Procedure for Processing a Defect through its Lifecycle

This task shows how to submit a Defect.

1. A person finds a problem and reports it. Who the person is and their relationship to the organization that owns the Product determines how the Defect is created.

   • External Person. Product Support (or equivalent) creates an Issue, which is then used to create a Defect. See Creating a Defect from an Issue.
   • Internal Person. Quality Engineering (or equivalent) or other internal person creates a Defect. See Creating a Defect.

   The Defect can be created in Submit or Evaluate. If all the Defect Details are available, see Procedure for Processing a Defect through its Lifecycle.

2. When all available details, such as reference documents and detailed descriptions, are complete, the Originator promotes the Defect to the Evaluate state. If the submitter determines that the Defect should not be submitted, it can be promoted directly to the Rejected state.

In the Evaluate state, the Change Board reviews the Defect by itself, and in relation to other submitted Defects.

1. The Defect shows in the Defect Assessment Dashboard for members of the Change Board responsible for the Product. See Managing Defects

   Note: Any individual person on the Change Board can perform the steps in this section.

2. If the Change Board determines that there are insufficient details to work on the Defect, they can demote it to the Submit state. See Demoting a Defect to Evaluate or Submit. The originator then must provide additional details or explanations, and subsequently promote the Defect back to the Evaluate state.

3. The Change Board evaluates the Defect in relation to other Defects. If this Defect:

   • Duplicates a Defect already reported, uses the Actions > Mark as Duplicate option on the Defect's Properties page. This action promotes the current Defect to the Rejected state.
   • Relates to another Defect already reported (such as a different problem that occurs within the same code), uses the Actions > Add Related Defect option on the Defect's Properties page.
   • Affects Issues (other than the one it was created from, if created from an Issue), uses the Actions > Add Issues Addressed option on the Defect's Properties page.
   • Affects Products (other than the one it was reported against), uses the Actions > Add Reported Against option on the Defect's Properties page.

   See Viewing Defect Details for details on these Actions.

4. If the Change Board determines that the Defect should not be resolved (such as it really should be an enhancement request, or the user made a mistake), it is promoted to Rejected. See Rejecting a Defect.

5. Promotes the Defect to the Open state, which includes the creation of a Defect Action. See Opening a Defect.

This task describes the process for opening a Defect.

1. 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

2. Additional Defect Actions are created as needed to support the tasks required to resolve the Defect.

3. The Action Assignee processes the Defect Action through its lifecycle. See Procedure for Processing a Defect Action through its Lifecycle.

4. When all Defect Actions are processed and closed (or rejected), Defect Management automatically promotes the Defect according to these rules:

   • If at least one Defect Action is in the Closed state (and any remaining are in the Rejected state), the Defect is Closed.
   • If all Defect Actions are rejected, the Defect is rejected.

You can reject the Defect at any point prior to the Close state.

Rejecting the Defect indicates that your organization does not plan to work on the Defect, and does not mean that the fix for a Defect did not solve the problem. (In that case, the Defect Action should be demoted to Open.) A rejected Defect can be reconsidered by demoting it to the Evaluate state, and then processing it through its lifecycle as described in the above sections. See Rejecting a Defect. If, after a Defect is rejected, the Change Board or Product Design Team determines that it should be re-opened, it can be demoted to the Open, Evaluate, or Submit state, depending on the reason it is being re-opened.