- [Instructor] Now that we've talked about
test-driven development and manual testing,
we're going to take a detour
into something I call leapfrogging bugs.
The basic idea is this.
Let's say we have Spring 1 finished up
and we're starting Sprint 2 right away.
Ideally, we'd have done some quality assurance testing
as part of the end of Sprint 1,
but it's not always that easy.
There'll always be bugs that come up after the fact.
Now we're in the middle of Sprint 2
and a few bugs and change requests
come back into the backlog.
Now here's the problem.
We're already doing new work on a new sprint deliverable
and the rules of Agile are designed to keep sprint tasks
locked in once the sprint starts.
This stops them getting added to on the fly
and generally making everybody angry.
So how do we deal with this?
First, it's a good idea to record
what version specific bugs are found in.
This is just good practice and common sense.
Second, you want to address bugs as early as possible.
The product owner or client could decide on priority,
but the important thing to focus on
is not letting them build up in your production code
for too long.
If they do, there's no telling what ripples
they'll cause down the line or worse yet,
what a late solution to an earlier bug will break.
Third, if you've got bugs stacking up
towards the end of a sprint,
consider having the next sprint
be focused on clearing them up
and load up less on new development work.
As far as how to handle bugs
and change requests as backlog items,
treat them the same as a development feature or user story.
Write them out, assign them points,
and factor them in into your workload.
One of the worst positions to be in on an Agile project
is trying to get a sprint out the door
while you're being consistently given bugs
from a previous iteration
and having the expectation that they will just somehow
magically get resolved by the end of the current sprint.
Investing in a great product owner that can be a buffer
between your developers and the client or QA
is a really good idea here.