Bugs and Patients – Triaging.

The process of dealing with defects is very similar to that of a doctor dealing with sick or injured patients.  We even share some of the vocabulary.

For example, in medicine, there is the term triage.  The term comes from the French verb trier, meaning to separate, sort, sift or select.  In medicine, the term most frequently refers to a process to categorize and prioritize specific patients in medical emergencies, including the pre-hospital setting, disasters, and during emergency room treatment. It generally focuses on severity of injury and availability of resources (time, equipment, supplies, and personnel).  In war time medicine, triage deals with the additional conflicting factors of the tactical situation and the mission.  In either case,  each patient’s condition is categorized and thus prioritized.

In software, while hopefully not chaotic, the incoming defect stream can be overwhelming.  Triage here generally refers to the process of examining incoming defects and putting them into appropriate buckets.

So how does this relate to software development?

1) What process does your organization or team use to triage incoming defects?

2) Does the process defined in “Emergency War Surgery” manual give you ideas about how your process might be improved?

3) Who are the decision makers in your process?

4) Do you follow the same process for all your products?  What about products that are no longer supported?