Last updated on May 29th, 2020 at 10:35 am
You’re probably aware of the issue tracking process but just in case you don’t, in simple words, it’s the process of tracking and recording bugs for the development team to fix them. While doing so, QA teams often tend to make mistakes which they shouldn’t. In this article, we’ll discuss five of these most common mistakes.
Lack of Attention
Website development is a huge project requiring tons of work. Due to the intensity of work, the QA process is often left ignored which can have serious consequences for the quality of the website. This may lead to unhappy and unretainable clients who may contribute to your negative publicity for free. The QA stage can’t simply be overlooked. You need to be sure about your product before handing it over to the clients. Don’t forget to ask for feedback.
Multi-Channel Communication
Once the website is complete, the involved parties are asked about their feedback by the development teams. This feedback can be given using various means such as sticky notes, emails, messages, and phone calls. Of course, feedback of this kind is inconsistent and subjective and much of it isn’t properly documented. That’s when it becomes hard to handle this unorganized information.
Be specific about your requirements when collecting feedback. Avoid open-ended and subjective questions. Send emails to people you’re seeking feedback from, containing all the important information about the website and its target customers. The purpose of the website should be clearly explained to them along with the consumer behavior of the target customers, their profile and how the website helps to present the solution for the customers’ needs.
Communication Tools
Widespread teams require top-notch communication. This means that they can’t just simply rely on chat or emails for collaboration and communication. A team can only be productive and efficient if each of its members is on the same page. This calls for a transparent feedback workflow.
Teams require communication and collaboration tools that keep each team member informed of the activities of the other person. Issue tracking tools also break the barriers between team members.
One of the most common issues tracking mistakes is to underestimate the importance of issue tracking tools. With a tool to manage the tickets and easily report bugs, your team is less likely to suffer from miscommunication and you can save a lot of money and time. Encourage your team to use visual communication methods such as sharing screenshots of the problem to the concerned individual. Visual communications allow the recipient to immediately understand the issue without having to read tons of text.
Wrong Assumptions
People tend to assume a lot of wrong stuff during a project’s QA phase. Team members must always be aware of what is going on with the rest of the team to avoid making assumptions. These assumptions have no place in a project for which your client pays and trusts you. Leave verbal communication behind, document everything that’s agreed upon and keep everyone in the loop.
Inconsistent Bug Reporting
Wrong reporting can lead to either fixing the right problem the wrong way or simply fixing the wrong problem. And this is something you should try to avoid. You need a proper and consistent way of bug reporting. Issue tracking tools can be very helpful in collaborating on feedback and managing bugs. With annotated bug reports and screenshots, you’ll see what your testers and users saw.
