Friday, June 27, 2008

Bug, Error or Defect?

A few days ago I came across this article:
www.sei.cmu.edu/news-at-sei/columns/watts_new/1999/March/watts-mar99.htm

It got me thinking... I usually use the word "bug" to referr to any unexpected behavior in the software. However, after reading this article, I started to say "defect" instead of "bug".

It also made me remember a Software Quality Assurance course I took during my Master's degree. In the course book the differences between defect, error, fault and some other words I don't really remember was explained. Back then -and still- I thought that there was no sense in using different words for different situations. In my opinion, problems during compilation, testing, deployment... all can be called defects. Using a word for each situation makes it confusing.

Finally, it is interesting how the name of the software changes our habits... for example, I used to say "bug" because I am used to using BugNET as a defect tracking system. Or when I say "googled" a word or "photoshop" an image.

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