What is steps to reproduce? Definition and examples

The exact actions that make a bug happen, written so someone else can follow them and see the same problem.

Steps to reproduce: The exact actions that make a bug happen, written so someone else can follow them and see the same problem.

Developers rate steps to reproduce as the most useful part of a bug report, and reporters find them among the hardest to give.

Ask “what did you do just before this happened?” while the sequence is fresh, then ask for another observation if the first answer is insufficient.

Example

1. Open a stay page
2. Pick Nov 14 as check-in
3. Change check-out from Nov 17 to Nov 18
4. Look at the total

How to write good steps

• Start from a known place: “Open the stay page for Seaview Loft”, not “go to the site”.
• One action per step, in order.
• Include the values you used: dates, amounts, the option you picked.
• End with what you saw and what you expected, as two separate lines.
• Mention anything unusual: signed out, a slow connection, a second tab open.

When you can’t reproduce a bug

Compare your setup with the report: browser, viewport width, language, time zone and account type. Many “can’t reproduce” bugs depend on one of them. If they all match, ask the person for the step just before the problem. That is usually the one they skipped.

Getting steps from users

Users rarely write numbered steps, and asking them for “steps to reproduce” confuses most people. Ask plainly instead: “What did you do just before this happened?” One answer often gives you the missing step.

Where Bopmigo fits

When a report is missing how the person got there, Bopmigo can ask what they did just before, while they still remember.

Questions

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