Last Tuesday, I gave my Experience Report on Bug Advocacy at the latest WeTest Auckland Meetup. It was a bit daunting – not that the audience had menacing expressions on their faces or anything, but I tend to do a little freak out before I speak in front of people. Something that I need to work on.
Below is a reflection on the Bug Advocacy Meetup we had last Tuesday.
A bit of background information about my experience: I’ve never been on an Agile project. Neither have I been brought into a project early in the SDLC. By the time I’ve come on to projects, the software has already been built. This meant that some people questioned why I don’t just talk to the developer and get the bug fixed? Or why don’t I just write it on a post-it note and stick it up on their computer? While I agree that these are great ideas, I’ve been on projects where things have to be tracked in a Testing tool.
I learned a lot from the discussions that followed my experience report. Namely, how people deal with bugs when they are on ‘less traditional’ projects. I also found it interesting to see that people seem to be just as passionate about functional bugs as they are about usability bugs; arguing that the usability bugs make the software ‘unprofessional’.
After my Experience Report, I prepared an activity which involved finding bugs in an Advanced Driving School website, using another Advanced Driving School website as a heuristic. These usability issues included:
- The fact that the first website’s homepage was too long.
- You cannot easily identify the menu
- The fonts and colours constantly change
- Some fonts are unreadable.
- The visitor’s count should be replaced by a conversion counter for it to be more meaningful.
Here are a few things that people agreed on that makes a good bug report:
- Write a useful Summary/Title
- Include steps to replicate. There was a developer in the room and he said it really helps.
- Attach logs if you can. A developer should be able to tell you how/where to find/record these logs.
Here are a few things that people agreed helps you advocate for bugs:
- Respect people’s time – if they look really busy, maybe come back later or gather a few questions before you approach them (instead of interrupting them every two minutes)
- Create a warm, happy environment. Some Testers say they have friendly bets with developers – the losers get cake for the team. Remember, we are all in the same team.
Here’s a link to Bug Advocacy Part I
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