The irony of finding problems

When people find problems with your product, you want to make it as painless as possible for them to report the problem so you can fix it. But, just saying, "I've found a problem," isn't enough to help fix the problem. So, whoever finds the problem (some people call them "bugs") must provide enough information to help track down the source of the problem. To do this, elaborate programs have been written to keep track of bugs - a description of the bug, who reported the bug, under what circumstances the bug showed itself and what equipment was being used. Beyond that, we need to know what the bug reporter was trying to do and what they expected to happen.

For instance, in the picture here you could simply say, "I've found a bug." Well, technically, it's not a bug. It's a Cricket which is a member of the order Orthoptera (Grasshoppers, Crickets and Locusts). True bugs are in the order Hemiptera. Then, if you look closer, you see that the Cricket is missing one of its hind legs. We could dig deeper but that's enough to illustrate my point. Simply saying you've found a problem isn't enough. There needs to be more information. And this is where the irony comes - if it gets too hard to report a bug, people will not want to take the time to report the bug. I've found this myself.

While adding features to our products, we use our products. And sometimes, we discover problems with our own product. It's in our own best interest that we report the problem so that someone who knows about that part of the product can fix it. But the first thing that comes to my mind is, "I don't have time to write this problem up. I have a schedule to keep. Maybe I didn't see that bug after all. Anyway, someone else will probably see it and report it." Yes, I'm tempted to ignore bugs but I don't. I dutifully write them up. But what about our customers? They're busy, too, and they don't have as much reason to take the time to collect all the important information about the bug and send it to us.

So, the bottom line is - there must be a balance. You must make it as easy as possible for people to report problems. Just creating a huge form that must be completely filled out before a bug can be investigated is not the answer. But you must also determine the minimum amount of information that is needed before working on the problem can begin.