Hello, software QA engineer here!
The quality of your bug report can also have a huge impact on how quickly and effectively the bug gets fixed. I have received a lot of user reports that I could not turn into ticket items for the dev team because the report was unclear about either what the problem actually was or how/where the user was experiencing it.
For example, saying "When I reblog a poll, the page crashes" might seem like it clearly describes a bug, but it's actually maddeningly ambiguous. Was this on mobile or desktop? Was it a "reblog now" or a reblog from the editor? If from the editor, did the problem happen when the editor was opening or after you clicked the "Reblog" button and were being returned to the dashboard? By "crash" do you mean the page froze or the app closed itself or a secret third thing?
If we can't identify the problem or reproduce it, then we can't fix it, and your report just gets added to a list of "unconfirmed issues" and filed away. Plus, having an actual dedicated QA person on staff is becoming less common everyday, and I can promise you that the average Developer is not going to put the same amount of effort into researching a bug report as QA would.
So here is my template for how to write a bug report with maximum impact. [I will put explainy commentary in brackets.]
STEPS TO REPRODUCE:
[Start with your environment and a clear, neutral starting point, then go step by step through every action you take until the point the bug appears. Lists are better than paragraphs here.]
- On the Android mobile app, open the dashboard
- Scroll to a post containing a Poll and click to submit a vote on one of the poll options
- Click the Reblog icon, and when the selection menu appears, click "Reblog..."
- When the editor appears, add tags then click the "Reblog" button
CURENT BEHAVIOR:
[This is where you describe the fuckery. Please be specific and literal. If you can also attach screenshots, even better.]
Nothing happens for several seconds after clicking the Reblog button, then the screen turns grayscale and audio of a guttural voice saying "IT IS ALREADY TOO LATE" followed by screaming plays at full volume. Then the app closes and reopens itself 6 times, at which point I'm returned to the top of the dashboard, and the post was not reblogged.
EXPECTED BEHAVIOR:
[This part gets skipped more often than not, because it feels obvious, but it's actually super helpful in identifying and fixing the problem. A lot of times, bugs will come in for features that have not been worked on in a long time and which probably don't have good reference documents. Describing what should be happening goes a long way in determining the location of the bug in the code base and the scope of the fix, as well as ensuring that the fix ends up being what you actually want instead of a surprise new thing.]
After clicking the "Reblog" button, the post should be posted to my blog with the added tags, the editor should close, and I should be returned to the position on the Dashboard that I had scrolled to prior to reblogging the post.
