Top 5 tips on writing a good bug report

Learning how to create a good bug report has become more than necessary. Nowadays, all development teams try to find the best software solution without bugs or errors. Even the most beautifully designed solutions are destined to have unit-level logic problems, and all other software problems are done away with.

The secret to an amazing solution is a reporting workflow allowing you to consider these issues as soon as they are recognized effectively. At the center of this workflow lies the bug report documentation providing details regarding the issue you just uncovered. Some technical experts just shared their recommendations on constructing a bug report below.

Given below are the top 5 tips for building an informative bug report.

Describe the bug in a crystal clear way

Most quality assurance engineers in the best software testing companies say that it’s essential that bug reports have clear bug descriptions. Some generic descriptions like “The button does not work” are not informative and make it hard for the dev team to prioritize their resolution attempts.

Begin with a clear summary. ” This is the first thing that a developer reads, and it must answer the what, when and where questions, say Anna Serguts, a distinguished quality assurance engineer at Orangesoft.

Reports must provide a short yet descriptive summary of the problem that provides answers to the vital questions. Just like, instead of the button does not work, you can write, “the [name] button on top of the [name] page crashes the program after the action(s) that resulted in the crash].”

Never forget that you might need to translate the information related to bugs initially recognized by the final users. Usually, people who are not a part of the development and QA teams tend to focus on how well the issue made them feel instead of how big the issue was. Your team needs to use a standard bug report template so that each person knows the information required to solve the issue.

Provide a detailed account of the environment 

A QA lead at KeenEthics said that it’s essential to understand not only the behavior of the bug but also the context in which it happened. Also include information related to the browser or mobile application used, the software version, the os of the device etc. This will make it easy for the dev team to understand the context in which the big comes up, as the issue might not just affect dated devices or operating systems.

Mark out particular steps for reproducing the bug

To properly fix a bug, developers should know how to reproduce it, which needs some particular steps, as the bug will only come up under certain conditions or after a unique chain of actions. Some say that the steps are proper in case a developer is good at reproducing it at least 3 times. You can also reproduce it 10 times and record the total number of times the bug popped up, e.g., 6 out of 10 times.”

Improper steps might stop developers from reproducing a bug in any way. If the tester or user doesn’t properly tell you how the bug comes up, the dev team will reject it until it’s recognized again.

Don’t forget to include attachments for clarity.

Pictures cost a thousand words, and GIFs and videos are costlier than that, says Jay Gadi, manager of engineering at Soapbox. Keep trying to get a screenshot, GIF, or bug video of how it happens.

It’s 100 times easier to solve a problem from a technical viewpoint when you notice the issue at the right time.

A nicely visualized bug in a screenshot saves plenty of time. If you cannot catch bugs with the help of a screenshot, record a video with all the comments about your actions, the expected result and the real result. Never forget to attach the crash logs that exist.

Now, you get some idea about what is a bug report. Isn’t it?

Make a single person responsible for making good bug reports.

Experts recommend that you must appoint one person to make the bug reports. This might be your product manager or engineering manager. In case there is no person appointed, people think that some other person will take care of all the paperwork, and the bug might be lost.

Also, check out our blog on Best Practices for shift left testing.

Eg. of reporting bugs in Jira with the help of templates

Jira is a popular issue and project tracking software made specifically for dev teams.

It is a little complicated for mini teams, but it’s also extremely strong. That’s why, a few of the most popular tech companies in the world make use of it!

Try out Marker.io for Jira

The reporting of bugs can be done by anyone in the organisation in Jira. This signifies that it’s essential to define a procedure and a template that can be used by everyone quite easily.

A properly documented bug in Jira appears like this:

You can notice that all elements of a nicely reported bug are present, including:

Name/ID

Visual Proof

Environment

Source URL

Summary 

Steps to reproduce

Console logs

Expected vs Real results 

You must easily understand that filling up a bug report of this sort can take some time..

In case, you wish to report dozens of bugs during testing, it will take a long time.

Luckily, you can quicken the entire process with the use of Marker.io for Jira.

The moment you come across an issue on your website, take screenshot with the help of Marker.io, add up annotations to make your point reach across just in a single click, the tool will convert it over to a new Jira issue.

All essential technical info example the browser version, operating system, screen size, zoom level) and the console logs automatically get embedded within your screenshot and is included within your Jira issue—without you being forced to do extra work of any sort.

CONCLUSION

For some reason, your workflow does not support any person managing bug reports, be sure that you appreciate and encourage accountability with your team— whosoever finds out about a bug or is told about it by a user must make the report.

If you continuously apply the bug reports, you’ll be easily able to construct an effective workflow, keeping your dev team on track and your users satisfied.

If you wish to get a good bug report written, contact one of India’s most reputed software testing companies, hikeQA. We provide all kinds of testing solutions.

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