Thanks for great questions. I face this problem many a time…
What do I do in this case? Well, how about go and make some coffee and enjoy my day and overlook this problem…:D
Now, the serious answers are:
Naturally, I will ask for the reason why they close the defects. Please note that I just ask for the reasons for closing the defects not just why they close the defects without telling me-testers. It depends on how developer answer this questions.
1) If they close it by accident, then I’m fine to re-open it and for more comments.
2) If they think it’s fixed and they are allowed to close without any comment, It’s more a process issue, not just developers themselves. I need to discuss to clarify the process of opening/closing defects.
3) If developers dont like you (for some reasons), well, go and buy him some coffee to see if the relationship is improved 😀
Whatever reason, I focus on how this affects the projects not just tester myself.
Phuoc Nguyen
@Tri:
Nice to meet you in this forum.
For answering your question, just want to append to Thanh’s idea.
Yeah, as QC/Tester , we face to this issue many time, it looks like our tasks daily. But more than the tester by ourselves, I think it’s about communication , collaboration in your team.
In your case, yes, first of all, I need the reason why they close my bug? If :
1- They mentioned that they cannot reproduce in their local machine, and they set as CANNOT REPRODUCE
<– I will try to reproduce again with my steps on TEST environment, and will poke him if the issue still happens. If the issue does not happen anymore, I will found the exact steps, the condition of this bug.
2- They mentioned that in this phase, it's unnecessary to fix these kinds of bugs , so I need to review with User Acceptance Criteria, Definition Of Done, or moreover, need to talk with leader, manager, produce owner… to define this.
But even if it's unnecessary to fix on this phase, it's still a BUG, and need to keep track or move to sprint backlog for further investigating.
All of above is just my idea, hope this can answer your question. Any comment's welcome.
ToanN
Hi Guys,
This is my idea about this, don’t hesitate to show your idea.
Your comment “Yeah, as QC/Tester , we face to this issue many time, it looks like our tasks daily”
=> how come it’s happen many times? So if it’s true, developer in your team need to improve communication skill.
Owner already mentioned “What will you do if a programmer closes a bug raised by you without fixing and comment?”
So my solutions are:
1- Discuss directly with this guy for any concerns.
2- If step 1 is no result, send email to him cc your manager, developer manager and input your idea with all details to make them understand your bug is valid.
Note: You have to make sure your bug is valid, unless you will get trouble ^^.
lanhuynh
My answer is more simple than anyone. First of all, when creating a bug/defect, I assign to BA – who takes responsibility and understand the system – to confirm. If BA say this is a bug, Dev team has to fix it. If not, we ignore the bug. After BA confirm the bug, if Dev mark the ticket as Won’t Fix and Close it, this will be reported to BA/Manager. NO task for QA/Test team anymore.
ToanN
Hi lanhuynh,
You are testing this function and found a bug. So why is BA here? When you raise a bug, I know it very clearly who is responsible for this issue. If you assign to BA, mean you aren’t sure about it.
Tri Nguyen
@lanhuynh: Not always, after raising a bug, it will be assigned to BA directly. In most of case, bug will be in developer queue and will move to BA just in case both tester and developer need to judge when they are in fighting 🙂
Paul Seaman
The situation posed in this post comes down to communication. Regardless of whether you are working in an agile or waterfall development shop communication is key. Good communication skills are very important skill for anyone who wants to excel as a tester. The first step for me would be to understand why the issue has been closed with no communication. I’m actually having some problems where my reported issues are being fixed but there is no communication from the developer (and I sit almost right next to him!). Encourage developers to talk to you, do this by taking every opportunity you have to talk to them. If you know the developer that will pick up your defect report offer them a brief overview of the issue, offer a demonstration of the problem so they can see it. Offer them the chance to work with you to resolve it (paired development and testing). Try to build a connection with each developer you work with. You only need to do this for a few developers, word will spread very quickly. Become the tester that developers want on their projects.
Re: “The situation posed in this post comes down to communication.”
> I couldn’t agree more. Also, when analyzing the cause further, it may boil down to the process the team is following. It should be more fair if developers should also be encouraged to communicate and understand testers too.
lanhuynh
Hi Toan,
In my project, assigning for BA doesn’t mean the issue is not a bug as all, it means that BA will take response to look at the issue and see if this issue should be fixed or not, and when it should be fix. As you can see, there are a lot of issues that we, the tester/QA, found but it can stay in the production.
@Quang,
Thanks for great questions. I face this problem many a time…
What do I do in this case? Well, how about go and make some coffee and enjoy my day and overlook this problem…:D
Now, the serious answers are:
Naturally, I will ask for the reason why they close the defects. Please note that I just ask for the reasons for closing the defects not just why they close the defects without telling me-testers. It depends on how developer answer this questions.
1) If they close it by accident, then I’m fine to re-open it and for more comments.
2) If they think it’s fixed and they are allowed to close without any comment, It’s more a process issue, not just developers themselves. I need to discuss to clarify the process of opening/closing defects.
3) If developers dont like you (for some reasons), well, go and buy him some coffee to see if the relationship is improved 😀
Whatever reason, I focus on how this affects the projects not just tester myself.
@Tri:
Nice to meet you in this forum.
For answering your question, just want to append to Thanh’s idea.
Yeah, as QC/Tester , we face to this issue many time, it looks like our tasks daily. But more than the tester by ourselves, I think it’s about communication , collaboration in your team.
In your case, yes, first of all, I need the reason why they close my bug? If :
1- They mentioned that they cannot reproduce in their local machine, and they set as CANNOT REPRODUCE
<– I will try to reproduce again with my steps on TEST environment, and will poke him if the issue still happens. If the issue does not happen anymore, I will found the exact steps, the condition of this bug.
2- They mentioned that in this phase, it's unnecessary to fix these kinds of bugs , so I need to review with User Acceptance Criteria, Definition Of Done, or moreover, need to talk with leader, manager, produce owner… to define this.
But even if it's unnecessary to fix on this phase, it's still a BUG, and need to keep track or move to sprint backlog for further investigating.
All of above is just my idea, hope this can answer your question. Any comment's welcome.
Hi Guys,
This is my idea about this, don’t hesitate to show your idea.
Your comment “Yeah, as QC/Tester , we face to this issue many time, it looks like our tasks daily”
=> how come it’s happen many times? So if it’s true, developer in your team need to improve communication skill.
Owner already mentioned “What will you do if a programmer closes a bug raised by you without fixing and comment?”
So my solutions are:
1- Discuss directly with this guy for any concerns.
2- If step 1 is no result, send email to him cc your manager, developer manager and input your idea with all details to make them understand your bug is valid.
Note: You have to make sure your bug is valid, unless you will get trouble ^^.
My answer is more simple than anyone. First of all, when creating a bug/defect, I assign to BA – who takes responsibility and understand the system – to confirm. If BA say this is a bug, Dev team has to fix it. If not, we ignore the bug. After BA confirm the bug, if Dev mark the ticket as Won’t Fix and Close it, this will be reported to BA/Manager. NO task for QA/Test team anymore.
Hi lanhuynh,
You are testing this function and found a bug. So why is BA here? When you raise a bug, I know it very clearly who is responsible for this issue. If you assign to BA, mean you aren’t sure about it.
@lanhuynh: Not always, after raising a bug, it will be assigned to BA directly. In most of case, bug will be in developer queue and will move to BA just in case both tester and developer need to judge when they are in fighting 🙂
The situation posed in this post comes down to communication. Regardless of whether you are working in an agile or waterfall development shop communication is key. Good communication skills are very important skill for anyone who wants to excel as a tester. The first step for me would be to understand why the issue has been closed with no communication. I’m actually having some problems where my reported issues are being fixed but there is no communication from the developer (and I sit almost right next to him!). Encourage developers to talk to you, do this by taking every opportunity you have to talk to them. If you know the developer that will pick up your defect report offer them a brief overview of the issue, offer a demonstration of the problem so they can see it. Offer them the chance to work with you to resolve it (paired development and testing). Try to build a connection with each developer you work with. You only need to do this for a few developers, word will spread very quickly. Become the tester that developers want on their projects.
@Paul,
Welcome on board. Many great points.
Re: “The situation posed in this post comes down to communication.”
> I couldn’t agree more. Also, when analyzing the cause further, it may boil down to the process the team is following. It should be more fair if developers should also be encouraged to communicate and understand testers too.
Hi Toan,
In my project, assigning for BA doesn’t mean the issue is not a bug as all, it means that BA will take response to look at the issue and see if this issue should be fixed or not, and when it should be fix. As you can see, there are a lot of issues that we, the tester/QA, found but it can stay in the production.
That’s why we have the BA here 🙂