How to Report a Bug the Right Way

Posted by Paul on June 13, 2014

In order to get the best out of any web agency when you have a problem with your website, you'll need to give them a very clear description of the problem.

So here are some guidelines for writing effective bug reports:

Principles

  • Be precise
  • Be clear - explain it so others can reproduce the bug
  • Separate each bug clearly under new paragraphs/headings in your email
  • No bug is too trivial to report - small bugs may hide big bugs
  • Clearly separate fact from speculation

Preliminaries

  • Make sure that you have cleared your browser cache and that the bug still occurs after this. In Firefox Ctrl + F5 will clear it. In other browsers it's usually in the menu under security and privacy.

Reporting a New Bug

Be sure to include the following information to help get your issue resolved as quickly as possible.

Overview: A brief overview of the issue.

"When resizing the browser the cart overlaps the search."

Steps to Reproduce: Minimized, easy-to-follow steps that will trigger the bug. Include any special setup steps.

1. View any web page. (I used the home page.)

2. Drag-resize the browser. (Specifically, while 
holding down the mouse button, drag the mouse 
pointer downwards from any point in the browser's 
content region to the bottom of the browser's 
content region.)

Actual Results: What the application did after performing the above steps.

"The shopping cart overlaps the search box."

Expected Results: What the application should have done, were the bug not present.

"The shopping cart should wrap down below the search box."

Browser: The name and version of the web browser you're using.

"Firefox 26"

Additional Browsers: Whether or not the bug takes place on other browsers.

"Doesn't happen in Chrome or Safari."

Additional Information: Any other useful information.

"This started happening on Wed 11th June 2014."
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