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14 Pro Tips For Efficiently Tracking Tech Bugs And Issues

Forbes Technology Council

Tech is never perfect, and there will be times when tech teams will face challenges. However, by preparing for potential bugs and technical issues, you can reduce the amount of time lost or damage done when one pops up.

One simple way to streamline the process for your team is by implementing an effective bug-tracking method. That’s why we asked our panel of Forbes Technology Council members how they recommend tracking tech issues internally. Below, they share 14 strategies that have worked for them.

1. Carefully plan and document your user-testing procedure.

Spend some time to develop a well-thought-out and documented user-testing procedure. Every single feature, functionality, screen transition and fringe case should be tested sequentially and methodically. This makes it immensely easier to identify, track and resolve bugs in your software system. - Marc Fischer, Dogtown Media LLC

2. Focus on communication.

Communication is key. Set up a process to communicate bugs clearly before even tracking them. Include a description of the defect, the steps to replicate, the environment in which the issue happened, the expected results, the priority/severity level, screenshots, video recordings or code snippets. Then use a tool like Jira to give a line of sight on how the bug is progressing. - Callum Adamson, Distributed

3. Record screen-share videos.

Document tech bugs by recording a short screen-share video that highlights the exact issue. A video is a more effective alternative to sending a long, wordy, hard-to-follow email—and it’s also more efficient to create. You can use drawing tools within video recording tools to circle critical areas. Video also enables the product team to digest the bug on their own time and at their own pace. - Michael Litt, Vidyard

4. Review bug lists in daily standups.

The best way is to use any of the existing bug-tracking applications (e.g., Jira). To make it more effective and painless, having a daily standup to go over the bug/issue list is very important. - Faisal Saeed, TeqXS Inc.

5. Start with a shared spreadsheet.

There are several well-known bug-tracking applications out there, but using a simple Google Sheet at the start, shared by the team, is all that’s necessary as you’re just getting going. - Dan Maycock, Loftus Ranches

6. Include structured data.

We see our customers using either standard agile tools (e.g., Jira, ADO, etc.) that they have in place or some of the more business-focused equivalents (e.g., Asana, Trello, etc.). The key is structured data so teams have visibility into their flow distribution and consistency. Also, make sure that it is simple to file an issue (do not have 20 custom fields). - Neelan Choksi, Tasktop Technologies

7. Follow a consistent standard for all interfacing systems.

With the growth in customer touchpoints from the Web, mobile, bots, social, APIs and SDKs, tech teams end up interfacing with several platforms and stakeholders reporting issues. Bug prioritization and resolution can be effective if all the interfacing systems and teams follow a consistent standard when reporting bugs, such as adequate details to recreate the bug, severity, business impact and so on. - Meeta Dash,


8. Use clear language to document the problem.

I’ve found the best way to track bugs and tech issues with my team is to use clear language when describing the problem in our documentation and during meetings. When your team doesn’t understand what’s wrong, it’s going to be hard to find a solution. Spend time detailing the bug and let staff know exactly how it will affect them and your customers. - Thomas Griffin, OptinMonster

9. Use a system that’s specifically designed for the purpose.

Having just performed a transition to a new customer-management system with a company that used a Google spreadsheet to track bugs and issues, Atlassian’s Jira software ticketing system was a life-saver for us. It’s cloud-based and centered on Agile practices; we required our vendor to use it. It became apparent where the issues and bugs were, and Jira provided an auditing method for monthly invoicing. - Rebecca Bowen, Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation

10. Encourage ownership among your team.

Bugs and issues arise in a cybersecurity context in a variety of ways. It could be from data storage, networks or a combination of other things. In my experience, the most painless way to track bugs is to have extreme ownership in your support teams. It might not sound painless, but it’s easier than relying only on technology. No matter what tech you use, make sure your teams are in sync. - John Shin, RSI Security

11. Explore the new software options.

As someone with 10-plus years in quality assurance, I’ve seen a bunch of ways to handle bug tracking. I remember Bugzilla being a simple one-page bug-tracking solution with no reporting capabilities and Excel spreadsheets sent back and forth between developers and QA. Those were tough times! Now a lot of the burden has been lifted thanks to a number of cool solutions, such as Jira, Mantis, Redmine, HP ALM and TFS—even an improved Bugzilla. - Nadya Knysh, a1qa

12. Set up a three-step system.

To address bugs and issues, implement a closed-loop system that prioritizes them according to their severity and provides transparency regardless of where it goes in the organization. Then commit to a timeline to close each bug or issue, and ensure your team properly communicates with the customer. If you don’t follow all three steps, you’ll end up creating pain for your customers. - Steve Cochran, ConnectWise

13. Integrate a system for user-generated bug reports with your internal tracker.

Adopting a system for user-generated bug reports that integrates with the team’s internal bug tracker makes the entire workflow painless. It requires a little work to put together but can save countless hours for developers in terms of triaging and acting on bugs that real users are reporting every day. Most popular bug-tracking tools today have integrations with error- and exception-capturing tools. - Sanket Saurav, DeepSource

14. Leverage error tags.

While alert fatigue runs rampant, there are ways to painlessly implement useful, necessary alerts with proper tagging and threshold settings. By inserting relevant error tags with threshold settings to avoid unnecessary alerts, developers can easily keep track of the most important issues that arise, helping them find and correct the most critical errors first. - Milin Desai, Sentry

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