Don't Ignore The Little Bugs

Posted by Ben Simo

And that's how it happened.
Believe me. It's true.
Because . . .
just because . . .
a small bug
went KA-CHOO!

One of my favorite children's books is also one of my favorite testing books. (Thanks go to Rob Sabourin* for alerting me to the testing connection.) Because a Little Bug went Ka-CHOO! tells the story of a multitude of problems that cascade from a little bug's sneeze. A worm gets mad. A turtle gets bopped. A bucket gets stuck. A policeman takes flight -- in a motorcycle sidecar. A boat nearly sinks. Pandemonium ensues.

This book illustrates how things that seem to be insignificant can have substantial lasting impact on a larger system.

Software bugs that appear to be trivial can be a sign of a larger problem. When we testers encounter bugs, we are usually looking at a symptom of a problem and not the underlying error that produced the bug. This requires that we do some investigation to determine if a bug is more serious than it first appears and if it is more wide-spread than it first appears.

After a bug is encountered, it is likely that the system under test is in an unexpected state -- and that unexpected state may lead to a bigger problem. Don't stop testing after you reproduce the bug. Look for bigger problems that may exist only after the bug is encountered.

Even if you can't find a bigger problem related to a bug, report it. Someone else may have knowledge about how it may impact other things in the system. At the very least, MIP it.


*Rob Sabourin wrote a great book titled I Am A Bug about software testing for children and others who may be technically challenged. The book is illustrated by his lovely daughter Catherine. An online version of the book may be viewed here.