Agile/Scrum Bug fixing: Myths & dysfunctions

• I can push bugs to backlog.
• We can complete a story without fixing all the bugs
• I have to finish all the stories first; the bugs can be fixed later.
• Before the release I will have a maintenance sprint which will have only bug fixes.

The list is big. If you are doing anyone of the above please stop doing it before it is too late.
One of the fundamental requirements of scrum is to have a shippable product by the end of the sprint. There is no benefit in "finishing" maximum stories with lots of bugs. Scrum places high importance in the quality. With this approach of not fixing bugs will lead to accumulation of bugs & in few weeks you will have 100 + bug and you may spend couple of months fixing it. The cost of pushing bugs sprint after sprint will increase exponentially. The bug which could have been fixed in 30 minutes today will take couple of hours after 2 months!!! I have faced this problem in many teams I have worked with.

My simple advice is to slow down for higher velocity. For short term if try to ignore bugs, it will catch up with you in long term bringing the entire system to a standstill. Yes. I have seen this happening.

Go through the following article. It might help you.
http://www.theagileschool.com/2012/02/scrum-quality-teams-not-delivering-high.html

Comments

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