ubuntu-defect-analysts team mailing list archive

[Brad Figg <brad.figg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> On 09/28/2011 12:16 AM, Kate Stewart wrote:
> > There has been some confusion occurring about the role and
> > responsibilities of defect analysts on specific teams, and how a team
> > with defect analysts should be interacting with teams without defect
> > analysts.
> >
> > For teams without defect analysts, the follow role should be performed
> > by the team lead or manager (or their visible delegate ).
> >
> > The following is a first pass at clarifying the Role and
> > Responsibilities that has been worked up with the existing Defect
> > Analysts.  Feedback is welcome.
> >
> > Role:
> > Analyze defects reported about a team’s packages that are most important
> > for the quality of the release and customer perception, and ensure that
> > the defects are addressed by the engineering team.  This requires
> > creating and maintaining metrics for determining the quality of products
> > and effectiveness of processes.
> I think the role definition can be stronger. For example, it could start with "The defect analyst is the primary driver for quality on their team. A successful defect analyst will do whatever is necessary to help their team release with maximum quality."

One of the things I've never liked is how QA people see themselves as
"keeping engineering honest". The implication is that engineering and
engineers are dishonest and will ship any crap that comes along.

I think it is the primary role of every member of every team to put
out the highest quality product possible given all the trade-offs that
have to be made. I'd like to think that at the end of every release
we are proud of the quality of the product but acknowledge we could
have done more and try to do more the next cycle.

> > Responsibilities:
> > - Drive and own strategies for assessing the state of their product and
> > measuring improvements or failures.
> > - Analyze bugs found and filter out key ones to be worked on by
> > developers to satisfy milestone targets [1].
> > - Clarify and track the handoff process for bugs that transition between
> > teams.
> > - Create tools and processes to improve efficiency and utility of the
> > defect analysis and reporting process,  including development of
> > appropriate metrics and data visualization.
> > - Analyze and monitor the bug reporting process of their product to
> > ensure necessary information is being gathered and that unnecessary bugs
> > are not being reported.
> > - Fixing bugs that are important to the analysis and monitoring
> > processes.
>  - Work with the QA team to ensure that necessary automated tests are in place, being run, and producing useful results.
>  - Regularly provide the team and the team's Manager with an accurate understanding of the state of their projects at the appropriate level of detail.
>  - Assist the Engineering Managers in channeling resources towards areas and issues that require attention.
>
> > Comments?  Questions?
> >
> > Thanks, Kate
> >
> >
> > [1] Note: Initial tooling in place to support analysis of those found by
> > QA testing, ISO testing.  The capability to do analysis to other classes
> > of bugs, will be extended as tooling to support the analysis is
> > developed.

--
Brad Figg brad.figg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.canonical.com