Modern QA2026Bad Example / Good Example: Bug Reports
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1.4Bad Example / Good Example: Bug Reports

Bad Bug Report

Title: Discount not working

Description: The discount code doesn't work. Please fix.

What is wrong with this report: It forces the developer to ask: Which discount code? Which product? Which environment? What did you expect? What did you see? Every question is a round trip that wastes both people's time. The title is unsearchable -- there could be dozens of "discount not working" tickets. The tone ("Please fix") implies the developer should already know what the issue is.

Good Bug Report

Title: 10% discount code SAVE10 not applied to order total on checkout page

Environment: Staging (v2.4.1), Chrome 121, logged in as test-user-03

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Add "Wireless Headphones" (SKU: WH-200) to cart
  2. Navigate to cart page
  3. Enter discount code "SAVE10" and click "Apply"
  4. Success message "Discount applied" appears
  5. Click "Proceed to Checkout"

Expected: Order total should be $99.00 ($110.00 - 10% discount)

Actual: Order total shows $110.00. The discount success message appeared but the total was not recalculated.

Additional context: The discount works correctly on the cart page (shows $99.00) but reverts on the checkout page. This may be a state management issue between the cart and checkout components.

Attachments: Screenshot of cart page (discount applied), screenshot of checkout page (discount missing)

What makes this report effective:

  • The developer can reproduce the issue in under 2 minutes
  • The title is specific enough to find later via search
  • The "additional context" offers a hypothesis without being prescriptive
  • Evidence is attached, not described from memory
  • No blame, no frustration, just facts

More Bad / Good Pairs

Bad Title: "Login broken" Good Title: "Login returns 500 error when email contains '+' character (e.g., user+tag@email.com)"

Bad Title: "Page is slow" Good Title: "Product listing page takes 12 seconds to load when category has 500+ items"

Bad Title: "Data issue" Good Title: "User profile shows previous user's address after switching accounts without logout"