How to create a very insightful bug ticket in software testing
Creating a very accurate and insightful bug ticket adds a lot of value to the software development process.
The following people on the software development team need to know as much information as possible about software bugs found: Project managers, subject matter experts, software developers, and software test engineers.
Software bugs have the following adverse effects:
a) Software users stop using the software product
b) Software users create a bad reputation for the software product and the company
c) Software users have issues using the software product
d) Software users cannot use a feature in the software program
e) Software development team suddenly changes daily priorities and postpones software release date
f) Software development team reputation starts to slide
All people on the software development team need to know the following information about a software bug in the bug ticket:
a) The accurate bug description in one short sentence
b) The bug impact or severity meaning what features in software program become problematic or impossible to use
c) Additional information about the bug
d) Detailed steps to reproduce the bug with the bug/error screenshots attachments
e) Program’s parameters, data files, etc.
As soon as the software development finds the bug, someone needs to create the bug ticket as early as possible.
There are three important key points about creating the software bug ticket:
a) Provide accurate bug description in one sentence
The description should be specific and not general.
The description is the explanation of what’s wrong with software functionality at a high-level.
b) Provide detailed and correct steps to reproduce the bug
The steps reproduce lists the test steps in a particular order the user performs to run into the software bug.
If steps to reproduce are not correct, then software developers cannot replicate the bug, and the software developers cannot fix the bug.
In many cases, the steps to reproduce are simple.
In some cases, writing steps to reproduce takes effort and time.
Creating accurate and detailed steps to reproduce is the primary responsibility of the software test engineer.
c) Create parameters for software development to reproduce the software bug
Software test engineer should reduce the scope of the parameters to remove unnecessary parameters and still be able to reproduce the software bug.
Once the software development team knows all information about software bug, then the project planning takes place to include:
1) Software development time to fix the software bug
2) Software testing time to verify the bug no longer occurs
3) Estimate and notify everyone on the software development team and the users’ group about the software patch/release date
The software development team should examine possible workarounds or temporary code fixes when the software development believes it is not easy to fix the bug in the current update or release.
