Bug is one of the favourite word of software testers used everyday in their testing career.
What is bug in software testing?
Software bug is an error, fault, mistake, failure or issues caused by the system or software that fails to work as expected based on the functional requirements and specifications or fail to behave as intended.
For an instance, consider an ABC customer has requested XYZ company to design business cards for their employees. Business card design requirements requested by ABC are,
- Standard size – 3.5 X 2 inches
- Company Name
- Logo
- Company Address
- Company Website URL
- Employee name
- Job title
- Email address
- Phone number
- Color : Brown
Once XYZ company got their final requirements, they started designing the business card based on ABC customer’s requirements.
After the designing of the business card, they send the design to the testers to validate the developed design is matching the ABC customer’s requirements and expectations. So, as a tester you are getting the final business card design like this,
- Standard size – 3.5 X 2 inches
- Company Name
- Logo
- Company Slogan
- Company Address
- Company Website URL
- Employee name
- Job title
- Phone number
- Color : Blue
Based on the final design that you got, has some issues or mistakes if you have validated against the requirements.
So, letz discuss the issues one by one in detail to confirm whether it’s a bug or not.
Mistake 1: Company Slogan
Company slogan is not listed in ABC customer’s requirements. But, Company slogan has been added by XYZ company in their final business card that they made for ABC customer. So, is it consider as a bug? Obviously, YES.
Any extra functionality or specification that has been added, which is not requested by customer in the requirements then that is called as a bug.
Mistake 2 : Email Address
Email Address is listed in ABC customer’s requirements. But, Email Address has been missed by XYZ company in their final business card that they made for ABC customer. So, is it consider as a bug? Obviously, YES.
Any missing functionality or specification that has been missed, which is requested by customer in the requirements then that is called as a bug.
Mistake 3 : Color
Color listed in ABC customer’s requirements is brown. But, Color that has been designed by XYZ company in their final business card that they made for ABC customer is blue. So, is it consider as a bug? Obviously, YES.
Any incorrect functionality or specification that has been developed, which is requested by customer in the requirements then that is called as a bug.
So, to be short and crisp, bug is an error, fault or mistake which has been added extra or missed or incorrectly developed program or software or final end product which fails to meet end user’s expectations and requirements.
Software companies should develop exactly what customers require not something extra or not something that has been missed from what they want.
Why do bugs arise in software testing?
“I am Human and I make mistakes”
Any product that has been in the market is developed by Humans. We are humans and we tend to make mistakes. So, the outcome of the product is not gonna be 100% perfect with crystal clear quality.
Bugs arise during various stages of software development. Possible reasons for software bugs are,
Software bugs should be identified as early as possible during the stages of software development. Finding bugs early saves a lot of time and money. So, try finding bugs early to avoid missing them later.
Unidentified bugs are dangerous based on the type of bug and how severe it is. So, try to find as many bugs as possible in the product rather than testing the product for its correctness. One of the Principles of software testing is to find bugs.
Learn how to manage your bugs in defect management tool Bugzilla & JIRA 🙂
Hope you guys are ready to find more bugs:)
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In my next post will learn about Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC).