Intermediate⏱ 6 min read

Defect Triage Process

Defect triage is the regular meeting where new and open defects are reviewed, assigned severity and priority, allocated to developers, and scheduled for fixing. An efficient triage process prevents backlogs from growing and ensures critical issues are addressed first.

◈Key Points

Triage team: QA lead, development lead, product manager — all three perspectives are required.
Time-box triage meetings: 30–60 minutes maximum — focus on decisions, not discussions.
Decision outcomes per defect: Fix now, Fix next sprint, Defer, Reject, or Duplicate.
Track triage decisions and rationale — these become audit evidence and prevent 'we never decided this' arguments.
Monitor triage backlog trend — a growing backlog signals that bugs are being created faster than they're being fixed.

⚡ Expert Pro Tip

Set a triage SLA: critical bugs must be triaged within 4 hours, majors within 24 hours. Without SLAs, critical bugs sit in 'New' state while the release date approaches.