Visualizing the structure of field testing problems

Abstract

Field testing of a software application prior to general release is an important and essential quality assurance step. Field testing helps identify unforeseen problems. Extensive field testing leads to the reporting of a large number of problems which often overwhelm the allocated resources. Prior efforts focus primarily on studying the reported problems in isolation. We believe that a global view of the interdependencies between these problems will help in rapid understanding and resolution of reported problems. We present a visualization that highlights the commonalities between reported problems. The visualization helps developers identify two patterns that they can use to prioritize and focus their efforts. We demonstrate the applicability of our visualization through a case study on problems reported during field testing efforts for two releases of a large scale enterprise application.