Testertools Forum

1. aysiu
   Member

   Reputation:126

    

   We are trying to define our process for Incident Management. Currently, our QA testers are focused on testing new or changed code before it moves to production. We are now looking at having QA testers be responsible for logging all production issues that are handed off from our 3rd level support group, into an incident tracking tool called SilkCentral. They will also be responsible to validate that the reported isssue is a bug before logging it into SilkCentral. I am concerned about diverting our precious QA resources from what I believe to be the most critical step in the SDLC, which is testing prior to releasing to production. Would like some feedback to know if having QA be responsible for validating and logging production bugs is part of the QA tester responsibilities in other companies.

   Posted 11 months ago #

2. brad
   Member

   Reputation:145

    

   As usual, different companies deal with this in different ways. I currently work in small company where QA tests new releases before they are shipped to external customers. Both QA and deveopers are permitted to log defects against these releases, however QA has the role of policing the defect tracking systems to ensure that defects are logged correctly.

   At the same time our Software Suppport team log defects found in the field in released versions. The defects are logged in the same system as above, but only once they believe they are really defects. QA again need keep an eye on the quality of defect logging from this team too. We provide documents and workshops advising on good defect logging.

   When I first started at the company, Professional Services were also allowed to log defects, however this resulted in large number of badly logged defects that needed further investigation by QA. This was taking up too much of QA's time and so we decided that fewer but better trained staff should just log the defects instead. So now, defects in released products can only be logged by Engineering and Software Support (we class QA as part of Engineering), and defects found in new unreleased versions can only be logged by Engineering.

   Posted 11 months ago #

3. keschrich
   Member

   Reputation:123

    

   For incidents that happen after a release to production we have:

   - Help Desk logs call and incident
   - Product Liaison - we have 3 of these - contacts and works with the customer to assist - many incidents are resolved by the Product liaison working with the customer - the remaining go into the work pool for prioritization and fix.

   - using QA to do this would dilute effort on the other projects - however if QA persons were available for a time they could assist in this are.

   Posted 11 months ago #

4. ntminos
   Member

   Reputation:57

    

   I've never seen a situation where QA staff were used to validate and/or log bugs. Normally this is a help desk function, as it involves client contact (working with the customer to further define the incident)...

   While I can see how the process might be of benefit, I'm not sure I'd care to get my staff involved in customer issues or customer service functions.

   Posted 11 months ago #

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