What Is A Bug Report?
We know when we are testing any application for future reference, we have prepared artifacts. So like other testing artifacts, defect reports, or bug reports also artifacts. This artifact comes to software testing when testers are started the test execution.
The purpose of this artifact is to share the detailed information like (environmental details and steps to reproduce, etc.) of a bug to the developer so that they can easily replicate the defect. For this also we can some paid software issue tracking tools like JIRA.
Components of Bug report: This will may differ from organization to organization. Because some organization is using some paid tools, and some are excel or other available resources to create a defect report. Let’s assume a sample bug report having the below fields
- Bug Name
- Bug ID
- Build Number
- Severity
- Priority
- Assigned to
- Reported by
- Reported on
- Reason
- Status
- Environment
Bug Name: here you have mentioned about the defect by a short description and also in a meaningful way so that anyone can get an idea about the defect from the name itself.
Bug ID: if you are writing in excel or any file, then you have to mention the defect id according to your organization standard, and if you are using any paid tool, then no need to worry about this because it will create automatically by the tool.
Build number: in an organization, developers have produced the tasks in builds. So when you are creating a defect report, it’s your responsibility to mention the build number so that the developer can easily find out the defect and fix that. So always mention the build number.
Severity: Severity means about the impact of the bug on the customer business. There are different categories of severity like:
- 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 should need to fix. There are different categories are also available for priority like
- High
- Medium
- Low
- Lowest
- Blocker
- Critical
- Major
- Trivial
Check Also: How to Define Severity & priority With Example
Assigned to: Who is going to fix this defect.
Reported by: who is find this defect
Reported on: Date of find 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 report, 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: Here you have to mention your system configuration
Description: need to describe in details about the defect
Steps to reproduce: what are the steps need to follow to produce the same defect. Here you have mentioned each step so that developers can easily reproduce the same defect without any confusion.
Expected Result: Here, you have to mention what should be the expected result.
Actual result: here, you have to mention what the actual result you are getting when you are executing your test cases.
What is a good bug report?
Anyone can write a bug report. But not everyone can do it effectively. You should be able to distinguish between a mediocre bug report and a good one. How to differentiate between a good or bad bug report?
Useful bug reports are those that result in fixing that bug. A good bug report has to be:
1. Reproducible: if reproduce the bug isn’t possible, then it won’t be fixed. As soon and easy as developer reproduce and see the bug, t it’ll be fixed. Otherwise, the more likely that the developer will proceed to the next bug report. In the description of the bug, you must to clearly describe the steps to reproduce without missing any of them.
Read Also: Master Test Plan VS Test Plan
2. Specific and Informative: do not spread problem in the whole essay. Try to be specific and maximize informatively. Strive to summarize the problem in minimum words yet in an effective way. And in any case, don’t combine multiple problems even if they seem to be 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 the minimal time cost
Why is the bug report important?
You are just testing your project and test failures. My congratulation, you find a bug. Now you should report it. In case if your bug report will be good on, it helps your developers to fix it and make the more reliable product.
Check Also: What Is Sprint?
How it 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, then bug has more chances to be fixed. So fixing bugs are directly dependent on how you report it. We Have mentioned all fields which are used while raising a bug, but all the fields are not mandatory to use. It depends upon the organization.
Let us know in your company how you write a bug report using which fields and how you are the plan to make the bug report more informative. Please write comments if you find anything incorrect, or you want to share more information about this topic discussed above, then you can use our contact us page.
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