The following article is a sample from the full BVOP™ Ultimate Guide and is part of the preparation for the BVOP™'s modern Agile Project Management Certification Program.
The BVOP presents defect analysis as a practice and tool for analyzing problems in development teams, organizations, management practices, or the environment.
A defect may refer to issue, bug, incident, error, flaw, failure, malfunction. The common understanding of a defect is an incorrect or unexpected result or behavior of the product.
The BVOP suggests defining categories for all defects, investigating the root causes for their occurrence, and adding each defect to a suitable category.
Defects categories
Defects categories may include:
- Time pressure
- General Stress
- Scope misunderstanding
- Scope change
- Poor requirements
- Lack of communication
Time pressure
Time pressure may be a reason for the occurrence of defects. When deadlines press teams, they may miss important details, or work quality may drop.
If defects in this category are predominant, this may be an indication of too short deadlines.
Corrective actions to reduce future defects in this category may include revisions and negotiations on deadlines.
General Stress
Stress may be the cause of defects. When people are under stress, productivity, proactivity, and confidence are declining. The defects in this category must be distinguished from the Time Pressure category.
Causes of general stress may vary, but general ones may include:
- Management attitude
- Personal conflicts
- Cultural differences
- Organizational policy
- Organizational stability
- Environment
Representatives of the BVOPM office are the main initiators to involve all the offices and their representatives in solving the problems.
Scope misunderstanding
If the scope of the project is not communicated enough at early planning stages or details are missing, this may lead to many defects categorized in this category at later development or implementation stages.
Another reason for the defects in this category may be not enough knowledge of the matter and technical or business knowledge among the key roles involved in the project.
Corrective actions to reduce the defects in this category may include re-discussing the details of the project scope, training in technology, and familiarizing key roles with the business logic of the project.
Scope change
Defects in this category may reveal problems in multiple areas such as:
- Clients or users are not aware enough of their needs.
- Development or implementation progress is slower than the users' demand.
- Lack of resources or introduced optimizations has changed the scope of the project.
- Additional requests from users or stakeholders that may not be needed.
Poor requirements
Defects in this category may be caused by a deficiency of:
- Detailing
- Quality documentation
- Technical or design expertise
- Documented verbal agreements
Corrective actions to reduce the defects in this category can be sessions between team members discussing the requirements before the actual work and potential improvement of requirements.
Creating sketches, diagrams, animations, or functional prototypes from product developers that present the work needed to be developed can be a validation method along with the demanding party.
Lack of communication
Communication is essential for any project, development, and business initiative. Lack of communication may relate to:
- General slow communication
- Intentionally ignoring important topics
- Missing important contexts
- Virtual or distant teams
- Low employee morale
- Conflicts
The BVOPM office investigates the core reasons for the problems and spends effort in resolving them. The categories with the highest number of defects should take closer attention.
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