Collect effective bug reports from customers
Jira Software is an issue and bug tracker that helps developers plan, build and ship their work. Jira Service Management is a simple way for customers to send your team bugs and feedback about shipped software.
Your users are your best friends. Their bug reports can help you:
- resolve issues before other users encounter them
- investigate and fix problems that slip through QA or automated testing
- catch issues from platforms you don't prioritize during testing
- show your users you care about quality and their experience
Issues can happen in any part of software development, not just the code. If your designers, documentation writers, product managers, or other team members track their work in Jira, you can escalate bugs related to their work directly to their teams, too.
The bug reporting and resolution process
The information needed to replicate and resolve bugs varies. But, you can standardize your process for collecting bug reports.
The customer service template associates certain requests with a bug report workflow. This workflow complements the bug report process. Use it as a jumping off point for your service project.
Requests that follow a bug report process have the same workflow in Jira Service Management and Jira Software. But, the teams' processes for handling bug reports have significant differences.
| Bug process for agents working in Jira Service Management | Bug process for developers working in Jira Software |
|---|---|
|
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Collect specific information from users with custom fields
Work with your development team and Jira administrators to share a custom field set. Define what custom fields you want to collect to aid developers fixing bugs. Your Jira administrator can maintain these fields in a single screen scheme. They can apply the scheme to both development and service projects. Read more about custom fields and screen schemes.
Developers note incomplete information as the biggest blocker to investigating and fixing bugs. The most common information that developers use are:
- the steps to reproduce
- observed and expected behavior
- screenshots
You might want to collect other information to categorize, report, or automate actions related to the bug report. For example:
- operating system
- version
- component
- URL
- user agent string
The more information you can collect, the easier diagnosing the problem will be. Your development team with thank you.
By default, the Report a bug request type comes with these fields:
- Summary
- Symptom
- Attachment
To add pre-created custom fields to your request types:
- In your service desk project, select Project settings (
) > Request types. - In the Report a bug request type entry, select Edit fields.
- Select Add a field.
Read more about adding custom fields.
Tips for creating bug report forms on your portal
- You can add help and instructions to your bug report request type. Encourage your customers to report each problem on a separate request. This helps tracking bugs in reports and development sprints.
- Use natural language when asking for information. For example, if you add a field to collect expected behavior, ask your customer to report these in plain terms: "What did you expect to happen?"
- Check in with your development teams every so often. Ask if there's any more information they need to squash bugs in your software.
- Check in with your Jira administrators every so often. Ask if there's any changes to screens that you should reproduce in your request types.