What a Bug Report is in Software Testing: When an application is developed or live in production, there is a chance of encouraging bugs. While working on the application, if a tester or an end-user finds any bug in the application, they need to report it to the developer so that the Developer can fix the issue.
But most of the time, the beta testers or the end-users are unaware of how to write a Bug report, which includes all the details the developers have to know to reproduce the mentioned bug and fix it.
When you’re a developer trying to sort through the reports you receive, you know there’s more to reporting a bug than simply announcing that the app is “broken”. Even when testers and users take the time to write detailed reports, they can still be too cluttered or ambiguous to be truly helpful.
If you want to save time and improve the quality of your bug reports, standardize them! A standard format makes it easier for everyone involved – from developers to testers to users. We’ve found standardized reports so that they can save up to 45% of your time!
| Post On: | How to Write a Good Bug Report? |
| Post Type: | Manual Testing Tutorials |
| Applicable For: | Freshers & Experience |
| Get Updates From: | Software Testingo Telegram Group |
What Is A Bug Report in Software Testing?
We create artifacts whenever we test any application for future reference. Like other testing artifacts, defect or bug reports are also considered artifacts. This artifact comes into play when testers start test execution.
This bug report aims to provide information about areas in software or on a website that need improvement. The report outlines specific reasons for why an issue exists and can also include suggestions for how to resolve the problem.
To create a great bug report, be concise and focus on only one issue while providing clear, step-by-step instructions for the developer. In addition, include environment details to help them reproduce the bug. By doing so, you will help the developer troubleshoot the issue and fix it more quickly.
How to Write a Bug Report?
What should an ideal bug report look like? While there might be small variations depending on the application type, a few elements are essential for all bug reports.
Bug report Fields: This may differ from organization to organization. Because some organizations use paid tools, and some use Excel or other available resources to create a defect report. Let’s assume a sample bug report has the following fields:
- Title
- Bug ID
- Build Number
- Severity
- Priority
- Assigned to
- Reported by
- Reported on
- Reason
- Description
- Status
- Environment
Title: A concise, well-crafted title gives the developer a snapshot of the bug. It should include the app component and the specific action or circumstances in which the bug occurred. This makes it easy for the developer to find and fix the issue and simplifies triaging bugs.
Example: [Chat] Profile picture is blacked in chat
Bug ID: If creating the defect report in an Excel file, include the defect ID according to your organization’s standards. And if you’re using a paid tool, you don’t need to worry about this – the tool will automatically create the ID for you.
Build Number: Producing tasks in builds is the responsibility of developers in the organization. So, when you are creating a defect report, it’s your responsibility to mention the build number. This will help the developer easily find and fix the defect. Remember always to include the build number!
Severity: Severity means the bug’s impact on the customer’s business. There are different categories of severity:
- Blocker
- Critical
- Major
- Minor
- Trivial
Priority: Priority defines how soon the bug should be fixed. The testers set the priority of a bug. Based on the priority, developers can understand how soon that defect needs to be fixed. Different categories are also available for priority, like
- High
- Medium
- Low
- Lowest
- Blocker
- Critical
- Major
- Trivial
Assigned To: Who is going to fix this defect?
Reported by: who found this defect
Reported on: Date of finding the defect
Reason: Type that’s like Defect / Enhancement
Status: Here, you need to mention the status of the bug. If you just found the bug and reported it, then the status should be new. There are different status are there like New/ Assigned/ Open/ Fixed/ Test/ Verified/ Closed/ Reopen/ Duplicate/ Deferred/ Rejected/ cannot be fixed/ Not Reproducible/ Need more information
Environment: Different apps can behave differently depending on their environment. This part should include all the details about the environment setup and configuration on which the app is running. If you require specific info about the environment, ensure it is clear to your users and testers.
Description: This part will overview the bug, including how often and under what circumstances it appears.
Steps to reproduce: what steps must you follow to produce the same defect? You have mentioned each step here so developers can easily reproduce the same defect without confusion.
Expected Result: Here, you have to mention what the expected result should be.
Actual result: Here, you must mention the actual result you are getting when executing your test cases.
What is a good bug report?
Not everyone can write a bug report effectively. It takes skill to craft a helpful report that developers can use to squash bugs. Here are some tips to help you write an awesome bug report.
Useful bug reports are those that result in fixing that bug. A good bug report has to be:
Reproducible Steps: When reporting a bug, include the steps needed to reproduce it. Keep the steps short, simple, and easy to follow – this will make it easier for others to replicate the bug and help solve it. However, don’t be afraid to include too many details; the more information you provide, the better.
Our goal is to help developers reproduce bugs more easily so they can better understand what might be going wrong. Without repro steps, bug reports are minimally useful and only serve to waste time and effort. Make sure to communicate this to your testers and end-users.
Specific and Informative: Do not spread your problems throughout the essay. Try to be specific and informative. Strive to summarize the problem in the least amount of words yet effectively. And in any case, don’t combine multiple problems even if they seem similar. Write different reports for each problem.
So the goals of a bug report are to:
- Explain a bug to the developer and show where it is
- Help the developer fix it with a minimal time cost.
How Defect Report helps developers exactly:
- Tells about issues that they are not aware of
- Helps determine new features that they may not have thought of
- Help get a feel as to how their customers use the software so they can make it better
And if you write your bug report effectively, the bug has more chances of being fixed. So, fixing bugs is directly dependent on how you report them. We have mentioned all fields used while raising a bug, but not all fields are mandatory. It depends upon the organization.
Let us know how you write a bug report using which fields and how you plan to make the report more informative in your company. Please write comments if you find anything incorrect, or if you want to share more information about this topic discussed above, then you can use our Contact Us page.
