Submit
A defect is created in the Submit state. While in this state, the defect's creator
can gather associated details, such as reference documents and detailed descriptions.
When ready, the creator promotes the defect to the Evaluate state.
If, in the process of gathering details for the defect, the creator
determines that no defect exists, it can be promoted directly to the
Rejected state. This should happen if the defect could not be reproduced,
the user made an error and no defect actually exists, or another reason
why the defect will not be resolved.
Evaluate
The Evaluate state is used by the Defect Manager to triage defects. The
Defect Manager chooses to open the defect (assign it to someone to be fixed),
reject the defect, or demote the defect to the Submit state (for example, if more information
is needed before the appropriate action can be determined).
Defect Managers can manually create defect actions associated with the defect at this
point in its lifecycle.
Open
When the Defect Manager determines that a defect needs to be resolved, the Defect Manager promotes
it to the Open state. If no defect actions were manually created,
Defect Management automatically creates one. Any number of additional
defect actions can be created as needed.
If a defect had been in the Rejected state and is moved to the Open
state, Defect Management checks for any existing defect actions
in the Test, Closed, or Rejected states. If it does not find any, it then
creates a new defect action for the defect.
Closed
It is not possible to promote a defect directly to the Closed state. All defects
have at least one defect action defined. When all defect actions have
been promoted to either Closed or Rejected (with at least one in the
Closed state), then the defect is automatically promoted to the Closed
state.
If a new defect action is created while the defect is in the Closed
state, Defect Management automatically demotes the defect to the
Open state. When the new defect action is closed, Defect Management automatically promotes the defect to the Closed state.
Rejected
Defect Managers can promote a defect to the Rejected state from any state except
Closed, although it cannot be promoted to Rejected if any associated
Defect Action is in the Test or Closed states. In addition, Defect Management automatically promotes a defect to Rejected if all of its
defect actions have been promoted to the Rejected state.
If a defect
is demoted from the Rejected state, the states for the defect actions
are not automatically changed—the Defect Manager must manually demote the appropriate
defect actions.
If a defect is promoted to Rejected, all defect actions associated
with it are also promoted to the Rejected state.
Following are some common reasons why a defect could be rejected:
- A duplicate of the defect was previously submitted.
- The defect was the result of user error.
- There are no plans to fix the defect.
- The defect was an unreproducible error.
A rejected defect can be reconsidered by demoting it to Evaluate state,
which restarts the evaluation process. No defect actions can be created for
a defect in the Rejected state.
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