Some times it is difficult to know for sure if a particular root cause is unavoidable or avoidable, as the Attributer you are asked to provide your opinion based on your assessment of the root cause. The determination can always be changed at a later time if you were initially incorrect in your assumption.
Lets say that my investigation found that code changes made under JIRA Issue RCT-1 caused the bug that I have been tasked to fix (RCT-7).
- Click on the Enter Attributer Data button within the JIRA Issue RCT-7
- You will be presented with the Root Cause Analysis - Attributer dialog.
- If you have determined that the identified root cause:
- Could have been avoided, select
- Couldn't have been avoided, select
- Could have been avoided, select
| Note |
|---|
If you are completely unsure, do not select anything. The Determination will remain unknown. |
Some examples of root cause reasons and their determination:
| Root Cause | Determination | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Coding Error resulting in an exception |  | The developer could have done more testing or should have reviewed the logs to ensure that their changes did not result in exceptions. |
| Change in shared library caused breakage in one of the component usages | | The developer should always investigate and perform some amount of testing on all usage paths of code that is changed. |
| Code doesn't perform expected functionality but the specification was changed after the issue was resolved/closed. |  | Developers and testers can only confirm functionality based on their existing knowledge of how something should work. If that something changes at a later date it can be considered the root cause but there was nothing that could have been done to avoid the problem in the first place. |