TickYouOff
Sign in
Back
🐛

Bug Triage & Debugging Checklist

Medium 14 items · 1 hour
testuser's avatar
testuser Published 4 weeks ago
Technical

This checklist guides engineers and responders through a clear, repeatable bug triage and debugging process — from reproducing issues and gathering logs to isolating causes and verifying fixes. It’s ideal for developers, QA, and on-call teams who need a practical workflow to resolve bugs efficiently.

Progress
0 / 14
  1. Confirm and document the bug report — Include environment, exact steps, expected vs actual, screenshots, and timestamps.
  2. Attempt to reproduce the bug locally — Follow reporter steps in the same environment; try clean state and variations.
  3. Record a minimal reproducible test case — Strip unrelated steps or code until the problem still occurs; capture a script or snippet.
  4. Collect relevant logs and telemetry — Gather server/app logs, browser console, request IDs, and timestamps around the failure.
  5. Search recent changes and existing issues — Check the issue tracker, recent commits, and deployment history for related changes.
  6. Scan logs for error patterns and stack traces — Look for exceptions, error codes, repeated warnings, and correlated timestamps.
  7. Generate hypotheses for the root cause — List possible causes and rank them by likelihood and ease of testing.
  8. Create a targeted failing unit or integration test — Write a deterministic test that reproduces the bug under CI or locally.
  9. Isolate the failing component using binary search — Bisect commits, disable modules, or narrow configuration to find the fault scope.
  10. Use debugger and add temporary logging or assertions — Step through code, inspect state, and log key variables to confirm hypotheses.
  11. Implement a minimal, well-documented fix — Make the smallest change that addresses the root cause; include comments and rationale.
  12. Write regression test(s) that cover the bug — Add tests that assert the fixed behavior so the bug cannot reoccur unnoticed.
  13. Run full test suite and targeted regression tests — Execute CI or local suites and address any failures or flaky tests before merging.
  14. Prepare release notes and close the issue — Document the fix, link PR/commits, notify stakeholders, and close the ticket.
Sign in to save
📝 My Notes