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Known Defects at Delivery and Product Support

publish date: 2026/06/19 10:41:42.574517 UTC

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A software company is about to ship a product. The development manager states: 'We still have 47 known defects in the system, but they are all low-severity. We will fix them in a patch.' How does the number of known defects remaining in a program at delivery affect product support costs and operations?

More known defects at delivery lead to higher post-release support costs, more customer complaints, and increased pressure on the support team

Known defects only affect support costs if they are high-severity; low-severity defects have no impact

Known defects reduce support costs because they are already documented and easy to fix

Known defects have no impact on support because users can work around them

Correct Answer

More known defects at delivery lead to higher post-release support costs, more customer complaints, and increased pressure on the support team

Explanation

Delivering software with known defects increases product support costs significantly. Users encounter defects and report them, requiring support staff to diagnose and respond. Known defects also reduce user confidence, increase the volume of customer complaints, and may require emergency patches. Even low-severity defects accumulate: users who encounter many small bugs lose confidence in the product. Shipping with more known defects is a business risk, not just a technical one.

Reference

Software Engineering, Ian Sommerville, 10th edition

Quizzes you can take where this question appears

Software Testing - Exercises