In my agile coaching and training journey, I spend a lot of time discussing a wide variety of topics. But there are themes that form a “Top 10” of topics that everyone seems to be interested in.
One of those items is how to handle bugs. Questions like:
- Do you estimate bugs (planning poker - points)?
- Are bugs equivalent to stories?
- When do you “file a bug” while sprinting?
- Do you count bugs as part of your velocity?
- Can you deliver a story in a sprint with bugs still open?
come to the surface in my classes and at conferences with amazing frequency. I often smile inside in amazement at the level of interest focused towards “bugs”. But that being said, it is an important subject for agile teams and I thought I’d discuss my views towards handling bugs in the above contexts.