Understanding Bugs in Software Testing

23 May

Understanding Bugs in Software Testing

The objective of QA activities is to find and detect defects and ensure fulfillment of requirements as desired by stakeholders. We at Q-Pros put this on the top of our priorities when serving our clients.

In this article, we will investigate bugs in software Testing, what are the criteria followed to report a bug, the terminology used, and why we get bugs?

To start, let us look at the definition of bugs in a software system.

Definition of “Bugs in Software Testing”

A bug is a way to define a certain defect that is blocking an application to work as required. Finding bugs can be defined as the main objective of the entire testing process.

Bugs might be caused due to several kinds of mistakes made by developers in the development phase.

Types of Bugs in Software Testing

Bugs are segregated into categories based on casualty as such:

· Coding Error: A bug caused due to a mistake in the coding phase (Internal mistakes).

· Design Error: A bug caused due to a designer’s mistake, these bugs could cause issues in functionality and behavior.

· New suggestion: This type of bug is concerned with enhancement. A testing expert would suggest a change rather than a severe fix.

· Documentation issue: Documentation issues could cause ambiguity and misunderstanding amongst involved developing teams. Which in turn results in bugs and defects.

· Hardware problem: Bugs caused by hardware issues interfering with the application of the software.

Types Of Bug Severity

In order to prioritize QA efforts, we separate bugs in terms of severity.

Bugs in Software Testing are defined based on effect level into the following types:

· Blocker: Blocks a certain function or test to be actioned.

· Critical: Causes system crash and major loss of data.

· Major: Causes a huge abnormality of function.

· Minor: Causes a small/minor loss of function.

· Trivial: UI enhancements required.

· Enhancement: A suggestion for a certain change or modification.

– Using Jira as a bug-tracking tool

Jira is an open-source tool that is used for bug tracking, project management, and issue tracking in manual testing. It offers services and features that include reporting, recording, and workflow.

Jira is a prominent project management tool that is easy to use and works best for projects that require multiple teams and levels of involvement.

Characteristics of a Valid Bug (Bug Criteria)

Reporting defects can be trickier than you would think. For us to consider a bug valid for reporting, it must follow a certain criterion.

First, a Bugs in Software Testing should be unique and have its own unique ID, this means that we cannot relate to more than one defect regardless of how close they are in the scope of application. Then you must consider the fact that bugs should be reproducible, meaning that more than one tester can get the same bug when following the same steps leading to that bug. Thirdly you should dedicate as much time as possible to make sure that the bug report is clear and cohesive and can be transferred from one team to another to get the issue fixed.

Where do Bugs come from?

There are several reasons why we get bugs in Bugs in Software Testing. The top two factors of bugs immerging are:

· Poor communication

Communication during the development stages is highly significant and is a key factor in project management.

Post-production bugs come about due to miscommunication which leads to ambiguity, meaning that there was an unclear or misunderstood transfer of information during the initial stages of requirement planning and design on what the software is required to do.