How to Write a Good Bug Report (Template + Examples)

What makes a bug report good or bad

A bug report's job is to let a developer reproduce the bug without talking to the reporter. If the developer has to ask follow-up questions ("What browser? What version? What were you doing right before?"), the report has failed.

Good reports contain: what happened, what should have happened, exact steps to reproduce, environment details, and evidence (screenshot or video). That's it. Everything else is optional.

The bug report template

Title: [Component] Short description of the bug in plain English Severity: Critical / High / Medium / Low Summary: One sentence: what broke, where, and what the user was trying to do. Steps to Reproduce: 1. Go to [URL / screen] 2. Click / enter [specific thing] 3. [Next action] 4. Observe the result Expected Result: What should have happened after step 4. Actual Result: What actually happened. Include exact error text if any. Environment: - Browser / OS: Chrome 124 / Windows 11 - App version: v2.3.1 - User role: Admin / Standard - Account/email (if relevant): test@example.com Evidence: [Attach screenshot or screen recording] Additional context: Does this happen every time? Only for certain users? Introduced after a recent deploy?

Examples of bad vs good reports

Bad report (web bug)

Title: Dashboard broken
Description: The dashboard isn't loading for me. Please fix ASAP.

What's wrong: No steps to reproduce. No environment info. "Dashboard" could mean 10 different pages. "Broken" could mean a JS error, a blank screen, or a wrong number. A developer can't fix this without calling the reporter.

Good report (web bug)

Title: [Dashboard] Ticket count widget shows 0 for Admin users after filtering by date

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Log in as Admin (admin@resolvo.com)
2. Go to Dashboard → Overview tab
3. Set date filter to "Last 7 days"
4. Observe ticket count widget

Expected: Widget shows correct count (should be ~47 based on ticket list)
Actual: Widget shows 0. Console error: "TypeError: Cannot read property 'count' of undefined"

Environment: Chrome 124, Windows 11, v2.3.1, Admin role only (Standard users unaffected)
Evidence: [screenshot attached]

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Bad report (mobile bug)

Title: App crashes sometimes
Description: The iOS app keeps crashing when I use it. Very frustrating.

Good report (mobile bug)

Title: [iOS] App crashes when uploading profile photo larger than 5MB

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open app on iPhone 14 (iOS 17.4)
2. Go to Profile → Edit
3. Tap "Change Photo"
4. Select any HEIC photo from Camera Roll that is over 5MB
5. App crashes immediately

Expected: Photo uploads or shows a file-size error
Actual: App terminates with no error message. Crash log attached.

Environment: iPhone 14, iOS 17.4, App v3.1.0
Reproducible: 100% of the time with large HEIC files, never with JPEG files under 3MB

Tips for reporters who aren't engineers

If you're a QA tester, support agent, or customer reporting a bug, you don't need to diagnose the cause — just describe what happened as precisely as possible:

Use exact wording from error messages — don't paraphrase
Note the time when the bug occurred (helps engineers find it in logs)
Try to reproduce it twice before reporting — if you can't, note that
Record a short screen video if a screenshot doesn't capture the full flow

What severity level to assign

Critical — system down, data loss, security vulnerability, payment processing broken
High — core feature broken, no workaround, affects multiple users
Medium — feature partially working, workaround exists
Low — minor UI issue, cosmetic, affects edge case only

When in doubt, go one level lower. Over-prioritising bugs makes "Critical" meaningless and erodes trust with engineers who deprioritise inflated severity labels.

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