Escaped Defects

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Escaped Defects are the bugs or defects that are not caught during the testing phase but are found by the customers or users once the product is released. This scrum metric plays a vital role in probing the quality of the product and the effectiveness of the testing phase. A high count of escaped defects shows weaknesses in the testing process and suggests a need for improvement. In addition, it is essential in managing customer satisfaction and the organization's brand reputation.

Guide: Escaped Defects

Escaped Defects is a term frequently used in the framework of Scrum and is a metric used to quantify the number of defects identified by end-users after a software product has been deployed. It is an important metric because it provides an indication of the quality of the software and the effectiveness of the team's testing processes.

Understanding how Escaped Defects work is key to Scrum – it's a metric that measures how many bugs or defects escaped the team's notice during the development phases and were only discovered by users post-release. These defects could have escaped notice during development for a variety of reasons, many of which could indicate a need for improvement within the Scrum team.

To answer questions on Quiz or Exam about Escaped Defects, you should firstly understand what the concept is and have a clear understanding of how it is calculated. Remember that defects are 'escaped' if they're discovered by users post-release - not during the testing phase.

Exam Tips: Answering Questions on Escaped Defects
- Understand the term and its importance in Scrum
- Know how escaped defects are calculated
- Understand the implications of high escaped defects for a Scrum team
- Be able to discuss methods to reduce escaped defects, such as improved testing processes or better requirement elicitation techniques.
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PSM I - Escaped Defects Example Questions

Test your knowledge of Escaped Defects

Question 1

In your role as a Scrum Master, you're seeing a surge in escaped defects identified by end-users rather than your development team. What would be an effective way to address this issue?

Correct Answer: Arrange a meeting with the development team to establish root causes and potential solutions

In agile and scrum, when defects are emerging from end users rather than the dev team, it's important to address the root causes rather than blame individuals or groups. The best course of action here would be to 'Arrange a meeting with the development team to establish root causes and potential solutions' - this fosters a blameless culture, encourages learning from mistakes, and facilitates continuous improvement. The other alternatives are not suitable or effective. 'Ignoring the situation as the users are finding the defects before they cause too much damage' is not proactive and does not foster quality. 'Punishing the development team for letting defects escape to production' creates a toxic culture of blame which does not aid in fixing the current situation or preventing it in future. 'Shifting the responsibility of finding defects to the end users' shirks responsibility and does not promote a quality mindset within the development team.

Question 2

During a Sprint, the development team discovers that a major defect was missed during the last iteration and made its way into the final product. As a Scrum Master, how do you prevent this from reoccurring?

Correct Answer: Implement a Definition of Done (DoD) that includes thorough testing criteria to ensure completeness and quality.

The correct answer focuses on implementing a Definition of Done that ensures all work meets a quality threshold before being considered complete, which directly addresses preventing defects from carrying over into final products. The wrong answers, while related to quality and defects, either misalign priorities (focusing on defects over product value), misinterpret the Scrum framework's guidelines (splitting Sprints into development and testing phases), or might lead to inefficiencies and go against Scrum principles (overly structured daily stand-ups focusing mainly on defects).

Question 3

As a Scrum Master, you are dealing with a recurring issue of Escaped Defects that are discovered post-release. The team seems to miss key issues during their testing phase. How should you handle this?

Correct Answer: Encourage the team to adopt a more rigorous Definition of Done, ensuring all criteria are met before declaring tasks complete.

While the correct answer focuses on strengthening the team's Definition of Done to ensure comprehensive completion criteria, including thorough testing which directly addresses the issue of escaped defects, the wrong answers either divert the responsibility to the Product Owner, propose solutions that might disrupt the Sprint cycle, or suggest implementing extensive new practices that could slow down the team initially. These alternatives might seem viable but do not directly empower the team to improve their existing processes in a way that promotes Scrum principles of self-organization and continuous improvement.

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Other Scrum Metrics concepts

Cumulative Flow DiagramCycle TimeLead TimeRelease Burn-up ChartSprint Burn-down ChartSprint Goal SuccessTeam VelocityThroughputVelocityWork In Progress (WIP)
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