In the previous activity, you executed your test cases on the SauceDemo website, recorded your results, and noted any deviations or bugs. Now, it’s time to dive deeper into the critical process of bug reporting and bug tracking—two essential components of manual testing.

Bug reporting is vital because it enables testers to communicate software defects clearly to developers. Tracking bugs ensures that no issue is overlooked, and it helps teams prioritize issues based on severity and importance. Effective bug reporting and tracking streamline the development process, ensuring the product improves with each iteration.

Key Components of Bug Reporting: When reporting bugs, it's crucial to include the following:

1. Summary: A concise title that describes the bug.
2. Steps to Reproduce: The exact steps taken to encounter the bug, allowing developers to replicate it.
3. Expected Results: What you expected the software to do based on your test case.
4. Actual Results: What the software actually did, including error messages or unexpected behaviors.
5. Severity: How critical the bug is (e.g., low, medium, high, critical).
6. Priority: The urgency of fixing the bug, which is often decided in collaboration with the development team.

How to Report Bugs Effectively

When reporting bugs, make sure to:

• Be clear and concise in your descriptions.
• Avoid vague statements like "it didn’t work"; instead, describe exactly what went wrong.
• Include screenshots or logs when applicable to provide visual evidence or detailed data of the bug.

Consider the example from the SauceDemo activity. Let’s say you encountered a bug while testing the locked_out_user login. Here’s how you would report it:

Bug Report Example:

Summary: Locked-out user unable to access the account despite correct credentials.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Go to SauceDemo.
2. Enter locked_out_user as the username.
3. Enter secret_sauce as the password.
4. Click on the "Login" button.

Expected Results: The system should display an error message stating the user is locked out.

Actual Results: No error message appears; the login screen reloads without any indication of the issue.

Severity: Medium

Priority: High

Importance of Tracking Bugs and Using Bug-Tracking Tools

After reporting bugs, it's crucial to track them through their lifecycle, ensuring they get the attention they need. Bug-tracking tools like Jira or Bugzilla help testers and developers organize, prioritize, and resolve issues. These tools allow teams to keep track of bugs, monitor progress, and communicate about status updates effectively.

Tracking bugs ensures accountability and transparency, which are critical to maintaining quality in a project. You’ll know which bugs are still unresolved, who is working on them, and their estimated resolution time.

Reflection Questions:

1. Think back to the activity where you executed your test cases. Did you document all necessary details like the steps to reproduce and expected vs. actual results? Were there any pieces of information you could have included that might make your bug report clearer?
2. Now, consider which components of a bug report you think are essential for every report and explain why. Additionally, name one component that might not be necessary in every scenario (such as severity or priority) and explain why it could be omitted depending on the context.

By reflecting on what you did well and where you could improve, you'll gain a deeper understanding of how to report bugs more effectively in future testing projects.

Lesson Summary

In the previous activity, you executed test cases on the SauceDemo website, recorded results, and noted deviations or bugs. Now, let's dive deeper into bug reporting and tracking, essential components of manual testing:

• Bug reporting communicates software defects clearly to developers.
• Tracking bugs ensures no issues are overlooked and helps prioritize based on severity.
• Effective bug reporting and tracking streamline development for product improvement.

Key Components of Bug Reporting:

• Summary: Concise title describing the bug.
• Steps to Reproduce: Detailed steps to encounter the bug for replication.
• Expected Results: What was expected based on the test case.
• Actual Results: Details on what occurred, including errors.
• Severity: Level of bug criticality (e.g., low, medium, high, critical).
• Priority: Urgency of bug fixing, often decided with the development team.

How to Report Bugs Effectively:

• Be clear and concise in descriptions.
• Avoid vague statements; describe exactly what went wrong.
• Include screenshots or logs as visual evidence or detailed data.

Bug Report Example:

• Summary: Locked-out user unable to access the account despite correct credentials.
• Steps to Reproduce: Enter specific details to replicate the bug.
• Expected Results: The system should show an error message indicating the issue.
• Actual Results: Describe what actually occurred (error or unexpected behavior).
• Severity: Medium
• Priority: High

Importance of Tracking Bugs and Bug-Tracking Tools:

• Tracking bugs through their lifecycle ensures proper attention.
• Bug-tracking tools like Jira or Bugzilla help organize, prioritize, and resolve issues.
• These tools enable teams to track bugs, monitor progress, and communicate effectively.

Reflection Questions:

• Did you document all necessary details in your bug reports from the previous activity?
• Consider essential components of a bug report and explain their importance.
• Identify a component that might not be necessary in every scenario and explain when it could be omitted.