While all software and web teams may aspire to deliver top-quality products right out of the gate, the reality is that development efforts are rarely perfect from the start. Initial and subsequent QA measures may reveal problems that require proper resolution prior to shipping the product, and with the complexity of today’s apps and websites, substantial time is often required on the development timeline for addressing bugs and issues. Once a set of bugs has been identified, how does the developer go about prioritizing them for resolution? The following guidelines may help in ordering which issues and bugs to resolve first.
1) Address Security Bugs First
Security always takes precedence, especially in cases involving user data. Bugs that may pose potential security risks in this regard should always be addressed first, as negligence in this category may lead to user/customer attrition, and may open up the firm to legal liability. Users in this day and age are especially wary of security shortcomings, so any issues in this arena should be addressed before all others.
2) Tackle Bugs In Order of Frequency of Occurrence
A bug may occur sporadically in a few isolated instances, or may be widespread and frequent among users. Generally speaking, the more numerous and extensive a bug is, the higher priority it is to fix. This data can be easily quantified through analytics from bug reports and trouble tickets. The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule) applies to this scenario — that is, 20 percent of software bugs cause 80 percent of the software’s failures. Using the Pareto principle, we see that isolating the most commonly occurring 20 percent of an app or site’s issues will resolve the vast majority of user issues.
3) Prioritize Bugs on Key Pages and Touch Points
Analytics can also reveal how individual bugs in an app or website affect metrics such as user signups, site performance, and click-through rates. This data in turn can be used to prioritize which bugs to fix first. For example, bugs that result in the highest revenue or traffic lost per day should take top billing when it comes to resolution.
4) Identify High Business Value Bug’s
Bugs that undermine or disrupt business objectives should take precedent over others. These issues can be identified through measuring bugs against KPIs (key performance indicators) related to specific tasks or features impacted by the bug. A KPI is a milestone or measurement that helps a company or organization define progress toward a business goal. For example, a KPI and related goal may be to increase the number of customer checkouts on an eCommerce site. A bug in the shopping cart that prevents users from checking out clearly affects this KPI directly — subsequently, its fix should take priority over others.
5) Fix Bugs Critical to the User Experience
If a bug hinders a specific task, can the user accomplish it in another fashion? That is to say, is the bug a show-stopper for a specific business activity or workflow? If so, the bug should rank highly on the resolution to-do list, especially if it impacts KPIs and related goals. For instance, a bug may exist in an app’s UI (user interface) that prevents users from sharing the download link with friends. If this is the only way in which a user can share the download link, and if the number of downloads is an important KPI, then the bug represents a high-priority item.
In short, priorities pertaining to bug fixes may vary between organizations, but generally speaking, bugs related to security trump all others in terms of urgency. Following these issues are those that occur most frequently and/or impact the most users. Bugs that affect KPIs or hinder key processes that cannot be accomplished through other means should also take precedence over others.
Source(s):
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Pareto-principle
