Software Teams Aren’t Taking Bug Reporting Seriously Enough
We’re moving faster than ever when it comes to software development and testing. Because of agile and DevOps, we’re testing along the way, integrating development and operations, and pushing toward a higher number of releases than we’ve ever even considered possible.
And for the most part, that’s good. Quickly iterating on software and allowing avenues for different parts of the software team to collaborate has and will continue to result in better applications, but some things have to be given up to achieve this velocity.
Of the things that are being sacrificed for this speed, proper bug reporting and bug tracking are high on the list. Because it’s so easy to quickly update applications on the fly and push out fixes within days or even hours rather than weeks or months, plenty of teams assume it’s OK to ship something with a high volume of bugs. It’s not their ideal situation, but hey, if development and testing need to be speedy, a few glitches in the system are just fine, right?
According to Sam Kaufman, the founder and CTO of BugReplay, there are more risks than you might expect if you leave too many bugs in your application and fail to establish a proper bug reporting system. In a recent interview with StickyMinds, Kaufman detailed how cutting quality corners in this specific way can lead to major complications.
“I think the average company does not take bug reporting seriously, as you can see if you’ve ever tried to report a website problem and couldn’t find any ways on a website to submit feedback or contact a person who could make a fix,” Kaufman said. “Typically, most shops will discount how many users will simply stop using their product because of a bug rather than making them jump through the hoops of reporting a problem.”
There are more software teams and novel applications out there than ever, too, so if you don’t get core aspects of your product right and force users to wade through a sea of bugs before completing an action, it’s very likely they won’t stick around to find out if you cleaned up your mess.
“If you’ve got a faulty product, there is a large likelihood your users will just go elsewhere instead of taking the time and effort to tell you about a problem they’re experiencing,” Kaufman continued. “By making it as easy as possible for your users to reach out to you and give you the information you need to fix an issue, you create value for your company in a much more substantial way than competing on features.”
With how fast development is today, some bugs are going to be unavoidable. But by putting an even greater emphasis on quality and allowing users to intelligently report bugs, you can create a more user-friendly and quality-driven environment.
