How to write a bug report?

This one is not a real blog post, just something short what came into my mind and what I wanted to share with you.

Unfortunately I have really bad experience with the bug reports I'm receiving. I often receive things like this:

• "The software is not working" => OK nice, what does it mean not working? Did you forget to start it?
• "I can not click on the button" => Your mouse is not working or what?
• "It is not saving the file"

In case of such bug reports it can take hours to figure out what you really meant and to reproduce it. So it is just a waste of time and you also need to wait longer for your bug fix.

Instead of that please try to specify all details regarding how to reproduce your bug and why is its behavior not normal?

A bug report should always contain the following information:

• Which working environment do you have (hardware, which operation system, other relevant software (ex. browser in case of web application)) etc.
• Which configuration/settings of the software are you using?
• What are the steps to reproduce the issue (really from starting the software, please)?
• What is the behavior you would expect here?
• What is the current behavior (which is of course not the same as the expected one, that's why it's called bug)?

If you are reporting your bugs in such a way the developer who will work on that will be happier and your bug will be fixed faster!

Thanks!