Defect Triggers

A trigger is any event that allowed a fault to become a failure.
Multiple triggers may uncover the same fault.
The same trigger may be used at any point in the software lifecycle.
There are 3 families of triggers: review/inspection, function test, and system test.

Review/Inspection Triggers

DESIGN CONFORMANCE: Comparing the implemented design against a reference –design document, pattern, or guideline.
LOGIC/FLOW: Checking for correctness or flaws using knowledge of the practice.
BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY: Examining compatibility with prior version of the product.
LATERAL COMPATIBILITY: Examining for compatibility with other products and platforms that need to work with this release.
CONCURRENCY: Serialization, shared resources, multi-threaded tasks, timing, etc.
INTERNAL DOCUMENT: Inconsistencies in prologs, and sections in the same work product.
LANGUAGE DEPENDENCY: Programming standards, specific implementation considerations, environment restrictions, execution modes, etc.
SIDE EFFECTS: Usage behavior beyond design, but relevant in context.  Do A; B happens.
RARE SITUATION: Unusual issues related to idiosyncrasy of environment, hardware, or software.

Function Test Triggers

DESIGN CONFORMANCE: Comparing the implemented design against a reference –design document, pattern, or guideline.
LOGIC/FLOW: Checking for correctness or flaws using knowledge of the practice.
BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY: Examining compatibility with prior version of the product.
LATERAL COMPATIBILITY: Examining for compatibility with other products and platforms that need to work with this release.
CONCURRENCY: Serialization, shared resources, multi-threaded tasks, timing, etc.
INTERNAL DOCUMENT: Inconsistencies in prologs, and sections in the same work product.
LANGUAGE DEPENDENCY: Programming standards, specific implementation considerations, environment restrictions, execution modes, etc.
SIDE EFFECTS: Usage behavior beyond design, but relevant in context.  Do A; B happens.
RARE SITUATION: Unusual issues related to idiosyncrasy of environment, hardware, or software.

Systems Test Triggers

WORKLOAD STRESS: Pushing the limits of performance, resources, users, queues, traffic, etc.
RECOVERY: Invoke exception handling, recovery, termination, error percolation, etc.
STARTUP/RESTART: Major events of turning on, off, or changing the degree of service availability.
HARDWARE CONFIGURATION: Issues surfaced as a consequence of changes in hardware setup.
SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: Issues surfaced as a consequence of changes in software setup.
BLOCKED TEST/NORMAL MODE: Test could not run during System Test, or customer found nonspecific trigger.  Look for additional trigger.