Writing bug reports

Some of the teams we work with have stopped writing bug reports. They don’t track bugs. Instead, the developer-tester pair discovers the problem while they are working together and implements the solution. In some cases, someone creates a failing automated check, perhaps in a framework. In that case, the fix is to get the check to pass without causing anything else to fail. In some cases, the programmers do testing and just need to “fix it and move on.” In others, the team sits in one virtual room, so the person who finds the problem just walks over to the person (pair, tri, or mob) responsible, explains it, and the issue gets fixed. Many would argue this is the modern way to do software development – that is, to collapse testing into development so that the two are indistinguishable. That is fantastic; we are happy to support it.

And we still think you should learn how to write an effective bug report.

At its heart, a bug report...