Writing Effective Defect Reports

Author

Kelly Whitmill

Kelly Whitmill has over 18 years experience in software testing. Most of that time his role has been that of a team lead with responsibility for finding and implementing effective methods and tools to accomplish the required tests. He is particularly interested in practical approaches that can be effective in environments with limited resources. He has a strong interest in test automation. He has worked in both small and large company environments. He has worked on PC-based, Unix-based, and Mainframe-based projects. He currently works for the IBM Printing Systems Division in Boulder, Colorado.

Introduction

Effective defect reports will:

• Reduce the number of defects returned from development
• Improve the speed of getting defect fixes
• Improve the credibility of test
• Enhance teamwork between test and development

Defect Remarks

Here are some key points to make sure the next defect report you write is an effective one.
1. Condense - Say it clearly but briefly
2. Accurate - Is it a defect or could it be user error, misunderstanding, etc.?
3. Neutralize - Just the facts. No zingers. No humor. No emotion.
4. Precise - Explicitly, what is the problem?
5. Isolate - What has been done to isolate the problem?
6. Generalize - What has been done to understand how general the problem is?
7. Re-create - What are the essentials in triggering/re-creating this problem? (environment, steps,
conditions)
8. Impact - What is the impact to the customer? What is the impact to test? Sell the defect.
9. Debug - What does development need to make it easier to debug? (traces, dumps, logs,
immediate access, etc.)
10. Evidence - What documentation will prove the existence of the error?

Condense:

Say it clearly but briefly. First, eliminate unnecessary wordiness. Second, don’t add in extraneous information.

Accurate

Make sure that what you are reporting is really a bug.Before
writing up the problem consider:

• Is there something in the setup that could have caused this? For example, are the correct versions installed and all dependencies met? Did you use the correct login, security, command/task sequence and so fourth?
• Could an incomplete cleanup, incomplete results, or manual interventions from a previous test cause this?
• Could this be the result of a network or some other environmental problem?
• Do you really understand how this is supposed to work?

“it is a sin to over report, but it is a crime to under report.”

If you want to know more detailed, please download it from my files.