The importance of bug reporting

The importance of bug reporting

<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><a href='http://www.imore.com/importance-of-bug-reporting' title="The importance of bug reporting"><img src='http://www.imore.com/sites/imore.com/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2014/06/wwdc_2014_developers_tim_cook.jpg?itok=AjfWEPdt' />[/url]</p> <p>There's a longstanding debate in the iOS and OS X developer community over the value of filing bugs through the Apple Bug Reporter system, commonly known as radar. Some believe it's invaluable, the only way to give Apple the feedback they need to ensure bugs get fixed. Others believe it's valueless, a black hole from which little satisfaction, if any, ever escapes. I'm not a developer but, based on the conversations I've had, both points of view are certainly valid. So, what good is filing radars and what should developer expectations really be?</p>  <p>If you're a developer, bug reporting is no different than any other aspect of any other relationship with Apple — it exists to serve Apple's best interests. Bugs hurt the experience of Apple's customers — which are also your customers — and it's in Apple's best interests to have you find and report as many bugs as possible so that the most critical ones can be fixed.</p> <p>That last part is important to keep in mind. Apple's engineering load has scaled significantly over the last few years. There are now hundreds of millions of customers, almost 10 million registered developers, and over 1 million apps in the App Store. Apple is also releasing new versions of iOS and OS X every year. That results in a lot of bugs and a lot of filings. Add to that the Bug Reporter app on every iOS 8 beta device, and the bug screeners are being flooded at truly unprecedented levels.</p> <p>Like any company, despite their size, Apple is time and resource constrained. They have to prioritize. They have to fix the showstoppers that prevent software from shipping before fixing the glitches that, no matter how maddening, are still manageable. They have to fix the bugs that can't be worked around before fixing the bugs that can. And they have to fix the bugs that affect a lot of people before fixing the bugs that affect relatively few.</p> <p>That's where radar comes in. If someone at Apple wants to get a bug fixed, they pretty much need a radar to point to. If they want to get a bug fixed as a matter of priority, they pretty much need a lot of radars to point to.</p> <p>That's why it's never safe to assume someone else has already filed a bug. Maybe they assumed the same thing. Maybe they simply didn't file it well. That's also why filing duplicate radars (dupes) is important. They're like up-votes. They indicate magnitude. A bug that nobody's filed is dark matter. A bug that only one person has filed is a tiny speck of light. A bug that's duped by dozens of people is a glow. By hundreds or more, neon.</p> <p>Radars and dupes can also provide additional information. Even for known bugs, it's entirely possible Apple hasn't yet figured out a good fix. Seeing something in a radar or a dupe's description or sample project could potentially help make everything fall into place. The greater the number of dupes, the greater that potential.</p> <p>What radars and dupes can't really do is start a conversation. Radar was never designed to be personable. It doesn't thank developers for their troubleshooting. It doesn't acknowledge the time and effort people put into filing bugs and providing sample projects. It doesn't give scores or points to tally. It certainly doesn't guarantee any particular bug will be addressed even months or years later. And if addressed, it doesn't guarantee anyone outside Apple will know about it.</p> <p>Sometimes bugs get fixed in code for beta software. Sometimes bugs get fixed in code that supports unannounced hardware. Sometimes bugs don't get fixed at all because resources are being spent fixing bugs far more critical. Sometimes, many times, it really is a black hole.</p> <p>That can be infuriating to a degree that some developers want to rage quit the system. After having talked to a number of people, however, and repeatedly getting similar answers, I feel it's safe to say this — to the engineers and managers at Apple, radar remains incredibly valuable.</p> <p>While radar is best viewed as a machine that ruthlessly logs all bugs, even if the less critical among them never seem to get addressed, the people on the other side are still very much human beings. Some of them come from indie dev backgrounds and know just exactly what filing a radar feels like from the outside. Others know just exactly what filing hundreds if not thousands of radars feels like from the inside. All of them have lists of bugs they want to fix and people who want them fixed yesterday. Getting anything added to those lists is tough. Getting anything pushed up those lists is tougher still. Without radars and dupes, it can be nearly impossible.</p> <p>Yes, there are problems with radar. There isn't enough feedback, even automated. Status updates can never appear. The system itself is old. Yet Apple has started to make progress on a lot of that. The website has gotten a makeover. There's the aforementioned iOS 8 beta app and perhaps a Yosemite counterpart will appear at some point. It's not the radar.app Apple and select partners enjoy, but it's progress. Hopefully that will continue. The Bug Reporter can't and shouldn't be a developer relations tool. It's job is to efficiently, ruthlessly log all bugs, even the ones that, due to simple volume vs. urgency metrics can't be gotten to. But no developer should ever feel, literally, like they've fallen off the radar.</p> <p>So, if you are a developer working on iOS 8 or OS X Yosemite apps and you're encountering bugs, please consider filing radars early and filing them often. Even if you never hear back about them, there are people working on those operating systems right now, people who want to make great software and provide for great experiences — people who will deeply appreciate the radars you file, and your having their backs.</p> </div></div></div><div id="comment-wrapper-nid-25354"></div><img width='1' height='1' src='http://tipb.com.feedsportal.com/c/33998/f/616881/s/3be30ec4/sc/4/mf.gif' border='0'/><br clear='all'/>

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