“Another 30 defects uncovered yesterday,” reports the QA Lead. “Ten defects were fixed,” reports the Tech. Lead. Taken alone these are alarming statistics, and if they persist long enough, the release date would certainly be in jeopardy.

Many software teams struggle through the QA phase with great anxiety as they normally work through the phase without a compass: nothing to tell them whether they are on track or not. How many defects are left? Will we be able to fix all the defects before the release date? These are a few of the questions that teams have anxiety about. It’s only until a few weeks before the planned release date that they come to grips with the realization that they are in trouble.