Process Area 5.1 – Defect Prevention

Purpose

The purpose of the Defect Prevention Process Area is to identify and analyse common causes of defects across the development life cycle and define actions to prevent similar defects from occurring in the future. .

Scope

The Process Area Defect Prevention addresses the practices for:

• Identifying and analysing common causes of defects and
• Defining specific actions to remove the causes of those types of defects in the future
  

All defects, whether found during development, testing or in ‘live’, are within scope.

Since defect prevention requires measurement data and measurement processes as inputs, the Defect Prevention Process Area builds on the TMMi Level 4 measurement practices and available measurement data regarding development, testing and product quality.

Process defects that have resulted in outliers and not meeting expected process performance also are within the scope. Since Defect Prevention needs measurement data and measurement processes as an input, Defect Prevention builds on the TMMi Level 4 measurement practices and available measurement data regarding development, testing and product quality.

Deployment

Some points to consider when looking at this Process Area:

• Are common causes of defects determined?
• Are common causes analysed for risk?
• Are common causes prioritised for elimination of the root cause based on their risk profile and are actions defined that will be taken to eliminate them?