This week the tip of the week on the Project Right Track web site, http://projectrighttrack.com/support.html discusses defect rating and prioritization for IT projects. My premise is that we spend too much time worrying about categories then actually figuring out what is most important to fix and fixing it. My tweets and this blog will echo that theme.
Most organizations use a defect rating scale of 1 to 4 or 5 where 1 is most critical and 4 or 5 is a minor or cosmetic issue. In all of my years of managing projects I am not sure I have ever seen a defect rated a 4 or 5 fixed. I'm certain a few have, probably by accident. So why do we rate them. The rating systems are used to help us determiner which are the most important or impactful defects that must be fixed.
Rather than rate theses defects 1 - 4 would it be better to identify the top 5 or 10 and work on those. When those are done, 5 or 10 more could be selected and so on.
By doing this, you are focusing resources on the most critical items and saving a bunch of counting.
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