10 Reasons Why Your Bugs are Getting Rejected and What You Can Do for it as a Tester!

She constantly discards my work. I’ve submitted seven bugs in the past three days, all of which she has denied. It’s scandalously obvious that she allows her subjective bias to direct her denials towards me.……

One of my colleagues was seething with frustration, and his narrative served as a catalyst for a heated conversation among our group. More team members came forward offering similar stories about encounters with various developers. Transformed into a forum for addressing bug denial, our routine team meeting became the site of a thoughtful analysis. We concluded the discussions by agreeing to conduct an exercise, with the intention of preventing the shame of having our bugs rejected going forward.

Each individual started tracking the reasons behind the recent bugs reported and the subsequent denials. The resulting assemblage of these denial explanations significantly advanced our understanding of the elements leading to the dismissal of reported bugs along with its associated misplaced presumptions.

Decoding Bug Denial: The Key Reasons

Rather than release the list, I would prefer to present a summarized list of pointers:

#1) Misinterpretation of the Requirements:

Misunderstanding certain requirements would invariably lead you to expect the same functionality to be included within the product. Your failure in observing the same will then drive you to wrongly tag it as a bug, which would eventually be turned down.

Real-world Instance: If you critique a recipe for being bland as it lacked salt, without realizing that it was supposed to be sprinkled right before it was served to prevent it from spoiling the overall appearance of the dish.

#2) Departure from the Original Agreement:

In the initial stages, you were briefed that the product would operate on a particular principle (XYZ). However, while developing, the developer found XYZ to be unattainable and shifted to another approach (ABC), without keeping you in the loop about this modification.

When you encounter that the product is not functioning as per your understanding, it seems like a bug to you.

Real-world Instance: Suppose you ordered a bespoke shirt but felt it was flawed at the trial fitting as you didn’t see any buttons on the front. The tailor then elaborated that buttons on the front would mar the aesthetics of the shirt, hence they were concealed within the front hem. This leaves you astonished.

#3) Absence of Explicit Requirements:

When the job requirements are not lucid, everybody is free to make their own assumptions about what is expected. If the realized product deviates from these assumptions, you consider it as a bug.

Real-world Instance: A teacher instructs the students to draw a cycle. After 30 minutes, upon evaluating the drawings, she is disappointed to find that none of them matched her expectation. Each student had comprehended the ambiguous instructions in their way, which resulted in drawings of tricycles, children’s cycles, excessive cycles, and even wheelchairs attached cycles.

#4) Changes in Requirements:

Due to communication gaps, when testers are deprived of updates about the change in requirements, they end up reporting more bugs, which are subsequently repudiated.

Real-world Instance: If you had ordered a sandwich made with banana bread, but instead you get one with honey bread, you’d absolutely decline. Unfortunately, you were unaware that your partner had changed the bread choice while you were busy on a call, deeming it unnecessary to notify you about it.

#5) Misjudging the Scope:

If by oversight, you end up testing an area which shouldn’t be tested at that specific juncture or which doesn’t fall under the qualifying standards of the product, your bug stands a high chance of being dismissed.

Real-world Instance: If you’re given the task of sweeping a room and you complain about the clutter elsewhere, your complaint will be disregarded because you were focused on sweeping the room only.

#6) Test Environment:

An application or product has defined hardware and software needs, both essential and peripheral. Failure to test under the correct environment or missing certain parts can lead to systematic crashes and rejection of vital bugs.

Detailed scrutiny is required as testers tend to unknowingly omit critical information about the testing environment used. This compounds the workload for the developer, causing them to dismiss the bug report.

Real-world Instance: You had savored some scrumptious muffins at your friend’s place few days back. When you attempted the same recipe, your muffins were nowhere close to the ones you tasted at your friend’s place. This was due to you using stale butter in place of fresh, adding a pinch of gram flour thinking it would improve the taste and baking them on the stovetop instead of the oven.

Recommended reading => Preparing an Effective “Test Environment”.

#7) Incorrect Test Data:

The test data utilized for testing is inconsistent with the requirement.

Real-world Instance: When you try to employ special characters on a numeric calculator and it behaves in an unexpected manner – that’s not a bug. The calculator is purpose-built for numeric computations, not for interpreting special characters.

Recommended reading => Strategies to Architect Test Data and Techniques for Managing Test Data.

#8) Identical Bug:

Failing to cross-verify before reporting may lead to you unknowingly reporting a bug, identical to one previously brought to light. In such cases, your bug report will unquestionably be dismissed.

Real-world Instance: A customer support executive on duty would certainly be displeased if multiple family members called in to complain about the identical product. Ideally, one call should suffice.

#9) Inconsistent Bug Description:

During their hectic schedule, if developers struggle to decode what you’ve emphasized in the bug report due to unclear information and missing justified reasons, even high-priority bugs are likely to be dismissed.

Suggested reading =>Crafting Effective Bug Reports: Tips and Guidelines.

Real-world Instance: Imagine being guided to unlock a car, get seated in it and start it by twisting the key clockwise. If the car doesn’t kick-start, it’s only understandable you would feel irritated. Nonetheless, it’s the manual that’s at fault for presuming you’d obviously check for petrol, an instruction which was not explicitly mentioned.

#10) Irreproducible Bugs:

Failing to prove the genuineness of a reported bug by not reproducing it or not determining whether it happens periodically, may lead to unnecessary labor and eventually result in the dismissal of the bug. Ensuring that the bug consistently repeats itself or diagnosing if it appears sporadically can help avoid this predicament.

Real-world Instance: When you tell your doctor that you’re suffering from a severe cold, but they don’t find any evident symptoms upon assessing you, merely expressing that you have been sneezing would not help the doctor gain a comprehensive understanding of your condition.

Conclusion

Most of the time when bugs we’ve reported get denied, it’s easy for our thoughts to take a negative turn. However, we must understand that developers don’t turn away bugs without a logical explanation.

Let’s concentrate on the quality, as opposed to the quantity, of the bugs we report. In the long run, our tool to measure success should be our contribution towards enhancing product quality, and not simply the number of bugs we submit.

Also, check out => Steps to get All Your Bugs Acknowledged and Resolved Without them being labeled as “Invalid Bugs”.

About the author: With over seven years of experience in software testing, Bhumika Mehta, a project lead, authored this informative piece.

We hope you have an enjoyable testing experience! As always, we’re excited to hear your thoughts on the subject.