August 12, 2008

It's common sense, stupid: Tips to Write a Good Bug Report

Writing is easy, but writing clearly is hard.
It's common sense, stupid: Tips to Write a Good Bug Report

Do's

1. Clear title - the developer should be able to grasp the essence of the bug report from the title alone.

2. One bug per report - no more, no less. reason: confusion, duplication, may be overlooked.

3. Minimum, quantifiable steps to reproduce the problem

4. Expected and observed results

5. which version of the software

6. references - like related issues

7. Pictures-- A picture is worth a thousand words!

Dont's

1. Don't write generic titles
2.
Don't just chat - document personal communications, so that the knowledge won't be lost
3. Don't assume that the developers can read your mind