Three Tips for Making your Tickets on Identified Bugs Even Better!
As a Quality Assurance Analyst, you obviously don't need me to tell you how to create a ticket for a bug you've identified, you already know to add a clear title, a thoughtful description explaining the issue, steps to reproduce (STR), the result (R), and the expected result (ER).
Do you want to go the extra mile though? Here are three tips on how to make your bug tracking tickets even better, and your developers will love you for it.
1. Add a link
Adding links to your tickets will save your developers time. They might already have the link memorized or in a tab, but you're making it easier for them if they don't need to think about it.
The link could be the first step in your STR to direct the developer to the QA or production site before the additional steps to reproduce. The link could even be a page or article on your site. Your developers are working endlessly on creating, improving and fixing products; they don't need to go hunting to find a bug you logged or make extra clicks to get there.
2. Take a screenshot and make the issue very clear
This one is a little bit obvious; after all, a picture is worth a thousand words. Sometimes just a screenshot alone doesn't accurately represent the bug. Try capturing a screenshot with a helpful tool that allows you to circle (or draw a box), point, and add a caption. You can circle the area where the bug is and additionally add some text re-identifying the issue. I'm a big fan of the tool Greenshot.
The example might not require any extra identifying, but with it clearly highlighted, the developer knows the issue without looking at all of the other information in the ticket.
Sorry, VIA Rail, I'm using one of the bugs on your website as an example. This was a live bug I found on their public website at the time of writing this article.
3. A video recording
Tools like Recordit will help when it comes to demonstrating how you found the issue. If a developer doesn't want to go through the steps themselves, they can easily take a look at a video recording. This doesn't mean to take away your brief summary of the issue, STR, R, and ER, but does allow them to skim through those if you provide a recording that can help your developers see the issue faster.
Ex. In a ticket would include → Video attached: https://recordit.co/j2EnmYmcms
(Fun fact: If the video is not too large, you're able to use Recordit to generate a GIF by simply adding /gif to the end of the URL.)
Being a software tester isn't just about creating test plans, testing products, and finding bugs; it's about making your developers lives easier.
Corporate Security Leader, Asset Protection, Physical Security, Investigations
6 年Great read. Very detailed. Thanks.
Product Manager / Founder / Strategist / Transforming ideas into successful products that drive innovation & growth
6 年Great article! I find QA so important! I always try to find better ways to communicate with developers so it's understandable and easy to correct the issue. I've been on both ends and know how painful it is when you are searching for a needle in a haystack.
Software QA Engineer & Analyst (Web and Mobile, Manual and Automated)
6 年One more tip is to link similar and/or related bug tickets. When a developer works on a fix, he can resolve a group of bugs at the same time, increasing productivity.
???? Senior Software Developer | ?? DevOps Engineer | ?? Cloud Enthusiast | CKAD
6 年If I had a QA like you I would be the happiest developer ever. Working with people not as well versed in ways of QA, be they clients or co-worker can be troublesome. Having just one of these can make our jobs so much easier. It's one thing to just tell me something is broken but it's completely another to show me.?