Bugs are bound to happen, it’s a fact. There’s no point in trying to avoid them, the important this is to address them. A clear tracking and reporting process can help you and your team detect bugs and deal with them quickly and efficiently, in a way that they won’t hinder your progress.
Projects are subject to all sorts of unforeseen problems. One of those unforeseen situations are bugs, and being able to effectively manage any incoming bugs and issues will have a huge impact on your project’s outcome.
A bug tracking report is a perfect solution to standardize the way your support, developers, and software tester teams manage to stay up to date on the latest reported issues, in order to address them effectively and comprehensively. To put it simpler, a bug report serves as a roadmap for your developers, so that they can acknowledge software issues and get to the bottom of it. These issues can vary from features not working properly to a broken functionality. Having a bug tracking report helps because it provides a procedure for your team, from the moment the issue is reported to the resolution of the problem.
Why is Bug Tracking Important?
Working on software development means one thing for certain; you’re going to find issues along the way. And to ensure and to maintain a functioning environment, you need to keep track of bugs. The good news is, a bug tracking template can really help you organize your workflow, and make sure you and your team ship better, bug-free products.
Before we get into what it means to create a bug tracking report and what it entails, let’s go over the reasons why it can benefit you:
You can have a bird’s-eye view of your workflow, from the moment a bug is reported to the moment it’s fixed.
You can prioritize what needs to be addressed first, based on the relevance and the impact of the issue.
You can assign issues to team members and promote ownership and accountability, this way, everyone will know what they’re supposed to be working on first.
You can rest assured that you are shipping good products. This will also allow you to improve customer service. It’s a win-win situation: your clients will stay happy clients.
You can learn from your issues and gain insights. By keeping track of every bug reported, you can learn from them so that hopefully you don’t come actress them again in future projects or product developments.
How to Write a Bug Report
Step 1. Create a summary: Start by writing a summary of the bug. Describe the problem, what is it, how it happens, and what steps you need to take to reproduce it. Include the details that’ll help your software engineering team to understand the functionality or functionalities that are affected. Also, include screenshots, dates, and categories.
Step 2. Scope: Now that you know what you’re dealing with, you need to make a plan and prioritize. Think about how and if this issue will affect your customers and the potential impact it will have. Once you have an answer, assign the proper priority and decide whether it needs to be taken care of ASAP, or if it can be added to the list of to-dos.
Step 3. Ownership and communication. Your entire team needs to be aligned and informed. They need to know about the issue and who is responsible for fixing the issue. How long it’ll take for the issue to be fixed, and who will be testing it until it’s ready for deployment.
Step 4. Post-mortem. Think of this part as a lessons learned for your project. How was this issue addressed? Why did it happen, and could it have been avoided? Could you fix these types of bugs faster? Could it be handled differently? These are the kinds of questions that’ll help you in future development projects.
Comprehensive Bug Tracking and Reporting
Bug and issue tracking templates are an excellent way to provide teams with a comprehensive roadmap that tracks essential and critical information. As different bugs arise, the proper handling of these issues is extremely relevant as it can have a direct impact on your product or project’s outcome.
Tracking bugs with Excel can make a lot of sense to many developers and project managers out there, but the truth is, it’s a limited option, and it’s not as effective as you would hope for. Excel doesn’t allow you to easily assign issues to different owners or to visualize tasks next to their deadlines. Also, as a static document, managing changes, or updating their progress can be a difficult task. And this is exactly where a Gantt chart software like Instagantt can genuinely make a difference.
Instagantt is not just another project management software: it specializes in creating visually striking Gantt charts with just a few clicks. By using Instagantt, you’ll be managing your projects and tracking your bugs and issues in one single place. You can easily assign priorities and deadlines, and keep track of the progress of each bug until it’s ultimately fixed.
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