It is quite rare for developers to make a perfect system without finding any glitches or unexpected errors. Many things could go wrong when developing any sort of software and application that you might skip, even during the testing phase.

But when they do happen, you need to keep a record of them. A bug report is one of the most important tools for testers as it allows them to check what went wrong, write down what caused it, describe, reproduce, and find the best ways to implement bug fixes.

This article will show how a tester should report bugs, all the items to include in your bug report template, and how you can make your own template.

A bug report is a document containing all the necessary data about a flaw or error (known as a "bug"), stating the conditions and circumstances where it happened. It conveys the issues, priority level, proof of those bugs, steps to reproduce them, and more action items.

You will need to have a well-established bug-reporting process or use a bug-reporting tool if you want your IT project to succeed. The QA team must write detailed bug reports once they finish their software testing life cycle.

A comprehensive bug report will tell your dev team why certain functionality is having issues instead of just saying, "this doesn't work."

There are two main concepts that an effective bug report should always focus on:

• Clarity and Information Value: Your text must be clear and simple without overextending it with more information than necessary. An extensive report will only overwhelm the developer.

• Reproducibility: Without being able to make it happen once more intentionally, the bug will remain unfixed.

If you give a bug report with the status "Can't Be Reproduced" or something similar back to the tester, you are wasting time for both parties. Always try to use a bug tracking template or a bug tracking software that was first approved by the team and managers at the beginning of the working process.

There are plenty of items that go into reporting bugs. We will look at every element you must include whenever you want to create your own bug report template.

Defect ID

Usually, bug tracking systems automatically generate an ID when adding a new bug report. But if you are using other programs like Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel as a bug tracking tool, you will need to come up with special terminology as identifiers (for example, bug_001).

You might also devise a list to keep each ID singular and unique. However, it is quite hard to keep it that way without a bug-tracking system.

Bug Title

It is your headline. In one sentence, you should provide a concise summary of what the bug is.

It must highlight the main issue with the bug, and we recommend you review it again once you have finished making your bug report.

Defect Description

This would be the most extensive section of your bug report. The defect description should contain a lot of information and data about how the bug occurred, how it impacted the overall software, what actions caused the bug to happen, what data was used, and who the user was.

You need to test thoroughly and narrow down every single step that is causing this issue to trigger. Doing this will allow you to add all the information needed for the defect description.

Environment

A bug might happen in certain environments and with a specific operating system. For these reasons, you need to be specific when stating the environment where the bug occurred.

Try to cut down all the unnecessary information and include the following items:

• Which device was used (state the specific model)

• Operating system and which version

• If the tester is given special accounts by the client, you should include the email and password of such an account. Hence, the developer knows which was used and re-discovers the issue.

• Check which version of the app you were using when the bug happened.

• State what kind of internet connection you were using (Ethernet, Wi-Fi, phone data, etc.).

• Tell the devs how many times you could reproduce it using the same steps. If this bug is intermittent and does not always happen, write down the number of times you try to reproduce it and compare it with the number of times you managed to do it.

Steps to Reproduce

Number out the steps to take from beginning to end to reproduce the bug you have encountered once more. It allows the developers to easily follow through by repeating the steps and process.

By doing this, you provide more process information that will lead to the next step without having a reproduction list that’s tedious and long. Also, you should exclude some obvious steps like "Log In" or "Open the App" unless your bug happens within these processes.

Expected Results

State what your desired outcome is for doing specific actions on the app. Review it from the end-user perspective and offer deeper insights instead of writing something basic like "the app crashed." Be more descriptive.

Actual Results

As you might expect, here you will state what actually happened. Or what does not happen, as certain actions might not happen when you trigger a specific command (for example, not opening the settings menu when you click it).

Try to be as distinct as possible and provide information on isolation to make the bug report more actionable for the devs. This may require you to reproduce this bug in different environments (like using another OS or device).

A well-described expected and actual results section will give developers a better understanding of the problem and a good starting point for their investigation, thanks to your additional details.

Evidence

You should take screenshots, videos or check the log files and attach them to your bug report. Anything that can capture and convey the exact problem and its seriousness must be considered in your report.

This process is especially important when such a bug is intermittent, as it will greatly help you whenever you can’t reproduce it.

If the problem requires steps to trigger it, you should record it in the video. If it is a visual bug or any issue that is clearly visible at the moment, a screenshot would be enough (get the whole window so the developer will see the problem and where it happens more clearly). And if it is something like an app crash, you will need both console logs and system log dumps.

Priority and Severity

Sharing the severity of a bug regarding the software's functionality will help the dev team to prioritize their work better.

Teams usually use a set of predetermined severity standards along with their definitions to clarify the importance of such issues. Mostly, they go like this:

• High or Critical: Anything that blocks the app usage or impacts the normal user flow. App crashes or customer data loss will fall under this category, and there isn't a way to work around this bug from the user.

• Medium: It negatively affects the user experience, like preventing to perform common actions. Although, there is a way for the user to work around these issues.

• Low or Minor: Minor issues that don’t concern the critical features of the app. Visual bugs, typos, misplaced icons, and layout issues are some of the most common issues that will fall under this category.

Teams also use a set of predetermined standards to lay out a priority. Following a similar concept as with severity, the three categories are:

• Urgent: It needs to be fixed right away.

• Medium Priority: It can wait, but you should still pay attention and try to fix it as soon as possible.

• Low Priority: It can be referred to and addressed later, as it’s not urgent.

If some issue has a high level of severity, it doesn't mean that it also needs to have an urgent priority. For example, the "Contact Us" page won't open or link you to an error page. The issue will have "High Severity" as there is no other way to get there. But it won't be urgent as it isn't a main feature.

Rely on data and evidence to get any issue addressed, and don't bump up any priority falsely to get the devs' attention.

Additional Fields

To make a more extensive bug report, there are several additional fields that you can add, like the date when it was reported, who reported it, the current status, who it was assigned to, and the module/business area involved.

They are pretty self-explanatory and will help you track the defect's various stages, making it easier to keep it up to date.

Now that you learned all the elements that compose a bug report, you are ready to write one of your own.

The best way to start off is by using a predesigned template which you can draw inspiration from or modify to better suit your needs. And don't worry. You won't need specialized bug-tracking software to do it. You can manage it well using Microsoft Word or Excel.

If you need an Excel CD key or a Word CD key, you can purchase one at a low price from the RoyalCDKeys store. You will find the latest version of the Office package, which includes programs such as Excel, Word, Access, Outlook, PowerPoint, and more.

If you need an Excel CD key or a Word CD key, you can purchase one at a low price from the RoyalCDKeys store. You will find the latest version of the Office package, which includes programs such as Excel, Word, Access, Outlook, PowerPoint, and more.

Bug Report Template For Microsoft Word

This template is quite straightforward, as it lays out all the main points to be covered in a bug report, such as title, priority, severity, etc. It also has additional fields where you can link files as proof of your bug reporting, submit date, app version, and more to let you make a more extensive bug report.

Download it from BirdEatBug.com.

Bug Report Template For Microsoft Excel

If you are more comfortable with spreadsheets, this template helps you with that. It comes with many of the same features and items as the previous one and with a better layout.

Download it from BirdEatBug.com.

QA Bug Report Template

This template is specially designed for the QA department. It tracks the bugs you discover to provide you with a ready-made QA bug report. Instead of big blank fields waiting to be filled with your data, some were replaced with multiple-choice tables to give a better visualization of the issue.

Download it as an Excel spreadsheet or as a Word document from Smartsheet.

It is essential to choose the correct platforms for your bug reports and ensure they are properly taken care of throughout your project's development lifecycle.

Using any of these templates (or making one of your own) will help to make this process more smooth and more effective.

Keep in mind to always be precise, simple, and clear with your data. Avoid any non-descriptive information to make sure the dev team understands. A well-crafted bug report will help greatly to find the right solutions for those errors and will allow us to better estimate how long any issue would take.