bug reportclient-relations
Does anyone know a good way to get users to write a semi-decent (read: useful) bug report?
We wanted to put up something that would make sense to most users (be easy to read and understand), yet give useful information to developers as well.
It does not work when I click the blue button! Ahhh, I just lost a week's work … make it work.
isn't very useful, as it is.
I started to fix about a list, but thought to check up with you guys, whether a similar method already exists.
To put bug analysis in there is a good practice, for the reasons you mentioned (just avoid being overly verbose).
This way, people reading it (including your future self) would know how much tricky the issue was and how much effort went in analysis and findings. Also, this way simplifies maintenance in the case when further changes are required related to your fix, because one could read bug report and understand why things were changed one or another way.
Just don't expect this to directly make you get noticed by higher management, because this is a different matter, a matter of workplace visibility, and this would require other skills and approaches. For the purpose of visibility, details you put into bug reports play only auxiliary, secondary role, allowing you to quickly find and get these details when necessary. Being capable to quickly pull out a clear explanation for tricky technical matters may give one a certain edge visibility wise, but it does not guarantee a major advantage.
To put fix code (except for snippets that are relevant in your analysis) into a bug report is another matter, typically a bad practice, as it is expected to be in VCS.
Good issue trackers integrated with VCS can even automatically refer readers to changes related to the fix. For an example on how this could be, take a look on Integrating JIRA with Subversion:
JIRA's Subversion integration lets you see Subversion commit information relevant to each issue. Subversion integration can be implemented either by using Atlassian FishEye or the Subversion add-on... both solutions allow you to link JIRA to related code changes in Subversion.
Commits will appear in this tab if the commit log mentions the issue key ('TEST-3' above)...
Best Answer
The most effective way to get users to write decent and useful bug reports is
[System] Thanks for reporting, you can find status of your request here: ...
[Engineer] Request rejected, for the following details are missing: ...
[User] Requested details are added, please re-evaluate: ...
I would go as far as to claim that it's the only effective way.
Let's face it, skill to write bug reports effectively comes only with experience. One needs to learn to gain experience. Learning involves practicing, getting feedback and improving.
User-editable online bug reports are the most efficient way to teach users improve.