July 24th, 2014 by Adam Sandman
Is it a "BUG"? We call them bugs because of that time so long ago, when a moth made its presence known in an early computing device. Bug has come to be known as a generic term for anything that does not work correctly. We say it is buggy. This is a bug. But it is not really a good indicator of what is happening unless we have an agreed upon lexicon, and even then, staff new to the process would require training.
We must be sure to categorize our incident types in such a way as to promote clarity. The more clear the term, the easier it is to convey the message we are looking to include without having to read the entire report. It also helps in filtering.
Suggested Incident Types
As examples, I will take a few types I have seen that are good to use:
- Enhancement - customer generated, or internal, this type of incident should be turned into a requirement for further development once it has been approved.
- Training - here is where we see some specifics, training refers to the fact that either the documentation or training process has some form of defect and is not appropriately providing information on the use or expected state of the application.
- Documentation - This refers to the age old case where functionality has moved forward but the documentation has not kept up with the application and may refer to an old flow.
- Limitation - the feature provides some of the process, however it does not allow completion in the reporters mind. There is a process or requirement that cannot be fully completed due to the current state of the application
- Visual Defect- graphics are not showing up right, fields are not lined up. or other visual disturbance
- Logical Defect - there is a mix up in where the process goes, there may be a field that doesn’t make sense till later in the flow, or there may be information that is displayed that is not valid. There may also be an omission of fields or data that is necessary at that point
- Blocking Defect - this is a defect that prevents the flow from continuing. in this case functionality is limited because we cannot reach the target.
These are just a few of the types, perhaps you could let us know of some that you have found to be useful.