Dave Churchville writes that not all bugs should be blindly fixed without considering the consequences. I think the decision to fix or not fix bugs should be considered using the same criteria as a decision to enhance your software.
A decision to enhance your software should depend on the following:
1) The payback from implementing the change (in terms of increased sales or reduced operational costs)
2) The cost of making the change
3) The risk that the change will be unsuccessful or cost more than originally anticipated.
A decision to fix a bug should be based on the same principles :-
1) Increased sales or reduced operational costs if the bug is fixed
2) The cost of fixing the bug
3) The risk the fix will be unsuccessful, cause other things to break or be more difficult than anticipated.
4) The risk that if the bug is not fixed it will cause a problem.
Often, bugs are considered separate from enhancements, go into separate databases and decisions are based on different criteria. If they are considered the same thing and tracked and prioritised in the same database, the correct balance can be struck between delivering feature-rich software with lots of bugs or a product with few features but few bugs.
No comments:
Post a Comment