Tips for Hosting a Successful Bug Bash

A Bug Bash is an event in the software development lifecycle where the entire team gets together and logs bugs in the product, all in the interest of improving the quality of the product before shipping.

Here are some tips for throwing a great bug party on your team:

1. Have the whole team participate in Bug Bash.

This is extremely crucial. The testers test the product day after day. They keep an eye on the product every day. It is the third person eye that we are looking for here. If there is a person involved in building/deploying or even maintaining the product, ask them to participate in the bug party. This could range from designers, business analysts, testers, developers, release management, UX designers, operations, sustained engineering teams, and even senior managers. The more people look at the product, the better bugs you’ll get. Bugs during the bug party could also just be comments in general. It is this feedback that could drive certain design decisions that make the product successful when it is released to customers.

2. Provide high-quality guidance to people who participate in Bug Bash.

There would be a number of people involved in the bug bash who would see the product for the first time. Therefore, it is very important that they are pushed in the right direction when running bug bash scenarios. This involves a number of important points and we’ll capture them all here:

A. Prepare a high-quality test environment for testingg – People should not have trouble logging into the system or see random crashes. Be prepared in terms of your test environment. Have different login accounts. Document all the information in a document and distribute it to everyone involved in the bug bash. So there is no worry on the day of the event.

b. Prepare a document of all major end-to-end scenarios for your system – It is important that people know how to start. A document outlining the core scenarios and how to run them would be extremely helpful. That way the team can start in the right direction and then test those scenarios and find good bugs.

vs Have a Bug Bash template that the team can use to log bugs – Many people would be registering errors for the first time. They shouldn’t have any issues with the actual process of using the error handling software your team uses. Having a good quality template will ensure that the focus is on finding bugs and spending time with team tools. The whole process should be people-encouraging instead of tedious.

3. Time the Bug Bash correctly.

A bug bash should be performed at a point in the cycle where the build is of decent quality. If you time it too early when the build is still in the process of changing, the focus shifts away from good quality bug logging and customer issues, but you will encounter crashing issues in the central stage flow. You really don’t want to be in that state. You want to find all the low-hanging fruit, the last-minute mistakes that could really improve the quality of the product. In my opinion, it’s better to have a bash bug near the end of the milestone/cycle. Maybe a week before you plan to release (again, depending on the length of your cycles). Remember that you will need some time to evaluate all the errors and even fix the ones you want to eliminate. So scheduling too late can also be problematic, especially if you end up with errors that block the delivery.

4. Block out a time during the day on everyone’s calendar

It’s important not just to send an email saying that your computer is having an error at a certain time. Put the event on everyone’s calendar. Maybe a whole afternoon on a Thursday or Friday where it’s light in terms of team work. Have detailed instructions in the meeting invite for the bug bash (as described above). This will ensure that more people get involved when it’s a real meeting on your calendar.

5. Offer incentives to participate.

A bug party activity should be fun. Therefore, having some good incentives to participate would ensure that more people attend the event.

A. Give prizes at the end of the event – It could have awards for “Best Bug Recorded”, “Best Bug Finder”, “Best Bug Finder – Developer”, “Best Bug Finder – Program Manager”, etc.

b. Let it be a moral event – Have treats, maybe some beer, food. Reserve a conference room where people can come and participate as part of a group if they wish. You can get creative in this space to make sure everyone is encouraged to come and have a good time. I once worked at a company where alcohol was flowing freely during a bug party. 200 bugs were logged in a 3 hour afternoon :).

6. Foster an “anything goes” attitude.

It does not have certain rules for logging errors. Encourages an “Anything Goes” attitude. Let people be creative in their testing and record anything they see that isn’t right. Of course, this could result in a number of errors that are “Duplicates”, “Invalid”, “By Design”, etc. But the more you have, the more you can think about how customers perceive or will perceive your product. Errors can be in the form of “usability feedback” like “It’s hard to do X”. With these bugs, product teams can gain valuable feedback on how to change the design in the future. You will be surprised how many design changes can occur due to a bug attack.

7. Have management encourage a good bug party.

If you want more people to participate in the bug party, administrative support is essential. Having a senior manager enforce it for people or at least email people would ensure that a lot more people get on board. The bash bug is normally organized by the test team, but having high level management support will give you more benefits compared to just an email sent by a tester on the team. It should come from the top down. If you need to convince higher level management, having a debugging plan reviewed with them with details on the benefits and advantages will get them thinking in the right direction.

8. Have teams focus outside of your area of ​​expertise.

This applies to product teams working on the product. If your product has two teams, have each team test the other team’s area. This will give you the advantage of a true bug party. How many bugs will you find if you as a product team test the area you have been working on through the milestone? It’s when you reverse roles that you get the benefits of good quality bugs.

With these tips, you’ll ensure your product meets a high-quality bar just before shipping.