Reporting bugs with a mobile app or website is the most important job that QA has. When QA testers find bugs, the issues need to be communicated with consistency and clarity. Since the Agile QA process is all about moving fast, developers won’t always have time to follow up with QA about every little detail. But how do you follow best practices for reporting bugs?

If a bug report provides the right level of detail, it paves the way for:

• Developers to work on the proper fix
• Project/product managers to prioritize bug fixes
• QA testers to avoid duplicate reporting
• Ensuring that QA tests the bug fix correctly

Best Practices for Reporting Bugs

Include as much information as possible. Okay, so mentioning the color of the t-shirt you were wearing when you found the bug might not be helpful. But the more details you can provide about the bug scenario, the easier it will be for a developer to identify and fix it. For example, does it only happen when using a VPN? Is it Chrome-specific? Further, are free and paid accounts affected? Include these type of details in your bug report whenever possible.

If it’s a critical bug, sound the alarm. Bug reports can get lost in JIRA until the next Sprint Planning session. (Learn more about the Jira QA workflow and best practices.) So if the bug in question is serious and user-facing (for example, a crash in the live App store version), it’s a good idea to go above and beyond creating a ticket. In addition to throwing a bug report in Jira, you can Slack the URL to a product manager to make sure they’re in the loop. Continue reading →