Mod Tester's Handbook tutorial - Crispy

Writing a Bug Report: Communication

Exhaustive, clear, concise: a bug report is all these things

The most important quality to look for in a tester is an ability to communicate important information clearly to your developers in a professional manner. If they are really good at finding bugs but can't explain the bugs clearly to the devs they will end up wasting a lot of time. If they come across as very negative with their feedback they will create disruption within the team. There are a few things to keep in mind when writing a bug report: you need to be precise, you need to keep it relevant and you need to stay neutral.

Precision
Accuracy is key here. Don't make any claims in a bug description unless you are 100% sure about them, the last thing you want to do is give information that could be misleading. If you have a gut feeling about what is causing the issue, use phrases like 'it seems to be', 'this may be' or 'perhaps this could be'. Don't ever make assertions if you aren't completely certain, it only wastes time. If talking about reproduction rates, give actual numbers instead of percentages; 3 out of 15 is a much more illuminating figure than 1 out of 5, even though both could be described as a 20% reproduction rate. Precision also extends to terminlogy: when describing bugs and how to reproduce them, you should be using the exact names the designers have given to characters, weapon, moves and locations. If an area of the game is introduced as the 'Vineyard' in the game, do not refer to it as a 'Farm' or 'Field' or fellow team members will be less likely to find your bug in a database.

Relevance
Don't include any extraneous information. Your job as a tester isn't over until you have narrowed down your steps to creating a 100% reproduction rate with the minimum amount of steps possible. Everything you include in your bug report has to be relevant. On the other hand, don't make any assumptions about what is and what isn't relevant if you are unsure. If you have found that a graphical issue that can be reproduced in both resolutions of 1024*720 and 800*600, make sure this information is in the bug report (don't ever forget to mention any conditions under which the bug cannot be replicated, this information can hold important clues). If in doubt, include extra information as a note in the bug.

Neutrality
Stay neutral. Give as objective an account of the issue as possible. Humour or sarcasm can be misinterpreted to create ill feeling and negative feedback is an unhelpful approach. If you feel you need to give a personal opinion try to distance yourself from your statement to make it sound more humble and less self-righteous. Phrases that show consideration for the end-user instead of over-emphasising personal preferences will be much more readily received by the developers than personal attacks or overbearing judgements. E.g. "It is this tester's opinion that the control scheme is unintuitive and may cause the end-user considerable frustration" sounds better than "The controls are fubared".