I work in the software business – a lot of you reading this probably do as well. I help test, develop, and deliver software applications – and a whole lot of stuff in between. As I always tell my team, other teams, and stakeholders at my company – my team of Software Testers (me included) are information service providers.

To quote Michael Bolton – we provide quality related information to our stakeholders.

I deliver information in numerous ways – in test reports, bugs reports, emails, meetings, stand ups, slack, video calls – you name it.  Note: Now keep in mind, I deliver different types of information via different means – for example I don’t report bugs in Slack.

Many years ago I realized that how I deliver testing related information really does matter! It matters in terms of how it’s received, by whom, and what types of action is taken on it. How I write something, the wording I use, and the language I use matters. How I say something, the tone I use, and the body language I show matters.

Now imagine you’re looking to buy something that you’ll use in your home, you do your research, and finally come to a decision about the item you’ll spend your hard earned money to purchase. You’ve done your homework and are convinced that this item is absolutely amazing. You place an order and a few days later your item is delivered – but the box that arrives is wet, torn, dented and in terrible shape. You open the box and find a set of instructions about your item – but the instructions are poorly written, making it incredibly difficult to understand. Furthermore your item is wrapped in plastic that is hard to remove and after all that unwrapping, you find the item has some scratches on it. Sure the item itself may still be the amazing product you had ordered a few days earlier but lets face it – you’d probably be extremely disappointed considering it’s condition and how it was delivered.

How you report bugs – what you write, the information it contains, how you write it matters. The same goes for test reports, crash logs, information logs and how you deliver this information.

If you’re the person paying for something, whether it be a product or service – how it’s delivered will matter to you and will play a big factor in determining whether you’ll want to continue paying for it. If it’s delivered and looks sloppy, rushed, and inconsistent, chances are you won’t continue using and paying for it. On the other hand, if its clean, consistent, and you can see that time and effort was taken to deliver a quality service or product to you – you’ll likely be happy and will continue your using it.

It’s something to consider when determining good practices on how you expect yourself and your team to write bug reports, test reports, provide updates at stand ups, and other status meetings.

That being said, write and advocate for bugs well, put in time and effort into how you’re presenting your test reports, status, findings, and quality related information to your audience – because it matters and can go a long way. Eventually it will become a habit – a good habit!