Bug Advocacy Part I

It’s amazing how important it is to communicate effectively in order to advocate for your bugs in the best possible way – whether that be written or verbal.

One of the things I learned from my BBST Experience is that the use of formatting can really help you get a point across. You could:

• Split it up into paragraphs
• Use italics
• Underline subheadings
• Use bold to highlight important sentences

Lastly, a book I highly recommend is How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. It’s been around for yonks (published in 1936). But I swear you will definitely learn a thing or two from it. To be honest, I don’t apply everything I read in that book (such as constantly saying one’s name – it just feels unnatural to me), but I urge you to buy it or go to your nearest library and borrow it.

Credibility helps get your bugs fixed. As a consultant, I’ve had to learn to gain credibility on each project.

I’ve learned to do this in a number of ways including:

• Be professional – I aim to do this through not only the way I dress and how I talk; but I also make sure I sing someone praises so that they get the recognition they deserve (this is something I am rather passionate about especially since some people are better at ‘selling themselves’ and others can be shy but super talented – anyway, that’s for another day!). 
• Yet friendly – I’m generally a happy chappy and from what I can gather, I’m approachable too.
• Consistently raise good bugs – I do my best to provide enough/sufficient information on each bug report. I also talk to the developers or business analysts for tips/advice before I raise the bugs or feedback after I raise them.