How to Write a Good Bug Report (The Best Practices in 2024)

Date
•
Reading Time
3 min read

Identifying bugs could be hard, demanding thorough testing and appropriate test scenarios. Reproducing a bug can be even more challenging. Writing a good bug report is crucial for effective communication between developers, testers, and other team members. A well-documented bug report helps the development team understand the issue quickly and facilitates a smoother resolution process.

Following a structure on your bug reports helps everyone on your team understand the issue quickly. Writing an effective and to-the-point bug report requires including some crucial information.

  1. Title/Summary
  2. Steps to reproduce
  3. Environment details
  4. Expected versus actual behavior
  5. Screenshots
  6. Severity/Priority
  7. Other technical details

The title should provide a brief, yet descriptive, summary of the bug. Include keywords related to the issue for easier search and identification. Here are some examples:

Cannot complete signup on IOS devices.

Total earnings in the summary page are calculated wrong.

Provide a comprehensive set of instructions that guides developers in replicating the issue. Break down the process into simple, sequential steps, ensuring that each action is distinct and easy to follow.

If applicable, include specific input data or conditions that are essential to reproducing the bug. These can be a user that you used or values you input that might affect the outcome of the reproduction.

  1. Log in with a "project admin" user.
  2. Go to Dashboard > Total Earnings
  3. Filter the date from March to May and press "Generate Report"
  4. Check the "Total Earning" column sum at the bottom right.

Specify the operating system, browser, device, or any other relevant platform information. Also, provide the version number of the software or application where the bug occurred, this might include the environment name like test, uat-1, prod etc.

  • Operating System: Windows 10
  • Browser: Google Chrome version 91.0.4472.124
  • Device: Desktop
  • Test Environment: UAT-1
  • App Version: 1.5.1.Nightly.032313.1244

A comparison between what should happen (expected behavior) and what actually happens (actual behavior). This helps to clarify the nature of the bug.

  • Expected Behavior: User is successfully logged in and redirected to the dashboard.
  • Actual Behavior: The page crashes and displays an error message.

Visual evidence of the bug, such as screenshots or video recordings. This helps to quickly illustrate the problem and can be especially useful for visual or layout-related issues. You can also annotate the screenshot to pinpoint bugs on your screenshot.

Example:

  • Screenshot showing the error message after attempting to log in.
  • Video recording of the steps leading to the crash.

An indication of the bug's impact on the project. Severity refers to the extent of the problem, while priority indicates the urgency of fixing it.

Example:

  • Severity: Blocker (prevents users from logging in)
  • Priority: High (needs immediate attention)

Any additional technical information that might help in diagnosing the issue. This could include log files, error codes, stack traces, or network requests.

Example:

  • Error Code: 500 Internal Server Error
  • Log File: Attached log file showing the error stack trace
  • Network Requests: Screenshot of the failed network request from the browser's developer tools

By including these sections in your bug reports, you ensure that all necessary information is communicated clearly, enabling your team to understand and resolve the issue more efficiently.