Let’s break this term and understand their meanings separately to derive the concept of bug triage. Bug is a common term, which you all must be aware of. In software engineering, the term ’bug’ has been assigned to flaws or errors present in the software application or programming which produces deviation in its intended functioning, resulting into incorrect or inappropriate or unexpected outcomes and results.

Now, what is triage? Wikipedia says “Triage is the process of determining the priority of patients’ treatments based on the severity of their condition”. Similar concept is applicable to bugs found during software testing also i.e. to conclude the priority of defects based on their severity. In simple words, bug triage may be defined as a process or mechanism to determine the defect priority with respect to their severity to impact the software functionalities and working.

Now, coming to the topic of discussion i.e. bug triage meeting process. As the name specifies, a project meeting held for the purpose of triage process i.e. sorting out the priority of open bugs, when it needs to be fixed, how to fix it, efforts and difficulty in retesting.

Who are the Participants in the Bug Triage Meeting?

Generally, the meeting is held by the Cross functional team consisting of QA group, project manager, QA manager, test manager, product manager and testing leads of all projects along with the participation of experienced and competent team members.

When to go for the meeting for Bug Triage Meeting?

Bug triage meeting should be carried out on a regular basis throughout the testing life cycle. Number of meetings and the gap between each of them is derived by the need and requirement of the project. Adding to this, the quantity of defects reported, time schedule and progress of the project may also paves the path for the meeting.

What are Roles and Responsibilities of each Individuals in the meeting?

• Project Manager: Project manager is involved in the task of defect prioritization with the additional responsibilities of sending meeting minutes, tracking issues and discussing the next possible date of meeting in consultation with the QA leads.
• Product Manager: Generally, assists the team in the process of prioritizing the defects.
• Test Lead: Test lead or QA lead are the ones who call the meeting. They are involved in the task of defect prioritization. Further, they have the responsibilities to submit bug report to cross functional team prior to meeting, managing defects and distribution of updated bug report.
• Development Lead: Assists in the task of bug prioritization by analysing and assessing the severity of each bug to impact system. Further, involvement of developers in the meeting helps in locating the root cause of the defects, and subsequently bugs are assigned to desired developer for its correction.

What are the activities carried out in the Bug Triage meeting?

Prior to bug triage meeting, previous status report along with the bugs found in the current phase is being sent to all concerned members by the QA Leads. Further, bug triage meeting usually involves execution of following activities:

• Ensuring that the identified bug has sufficient and useful information to convince developer(s) it as a bug.
• Correct filing of the bug.
• Bug is defined on the basis of appropriate severity and priority.
• Consideration of defects for their fixation which may be derived by following two factors:
• If project is at its initial stage, then all bugs, even the lowest priority ones may be included for the correction process.
• If the project is approaching deadlines or is in the final stage, then only high priority bugs, having high risk needs to be considered for the fixation process.
• Reassigning the bug priority and severity, and accordingly updating bug tracking system.
• Post meeting, the minutes of the meeting is being distributed to the concerned members.

Bug Triage Report Format:

Below given is a basic template of a bug triage report which may modified with the needs and requirements arises.

• ID
• Headline
• Reported Date
• Submitted by
• Severity
• Priority(fix)
• Owner
• Status

When to conclude this meeting?

Prioritizing each opened bug with the task of assigning the defects to the concerned person marks the ending of the meeting.

Conclusion:

Overall, it may be stated bug triage meeting is an effective approach to manage and fix defects throughout the testing life cycle.