Defect reports are the most important outcome of any testing effort. These are equally important like a test plan and have quite significant effect on the product quality compared to many other testing deliverables. An effective defect report certainly helps the tester in getting a much better response from the developers. A good tester is the one who does not aspire to write a perfect defect report, but aims to write a defect report that is having following Four Simple Attributes like: Attribute-1: It must be effective Attribute-2: It must communicate the adequate message Attribute-3: It must be sufficient to get the required job done Attribute-4: It should be able to simplify the process for all concerned To pump in the above four attributes in a defect report, Ten Basic Principles are being described here. Their prime objective is to lay maximum focus on “Attribute – 1†1) Must be Short & Brief: It must not display your excellence of writing skills with Shakespearean English. The objective must be that # Whatever we need to say must be brief & must be clear. # It should be free from complicated words. # It should not be packed with unwanted information. Contents must be absolutely relevant. # It should not have too much of Information, most of which might not be useful. Remember that irrelevant information is more troublesome compared to too little useful information. 2) Must be Precisely Defined: Ensure that only the real bugs are reported. Think carefully & do the proper homework to eliminate the possibility of reporting some product misunderstanding or some user error etc. In the absence of an intelligent homework prior to writing the problems, your credibility can be at stake. Following rules of thumb shall be helpful while reporting problems. a) Do not over report as well as do not under report. b) Be courageous to report the genuine problems. c) If you happen to report a problem incorrectly & discovered the error later, try to learn from it. d) When in doubt about the validity of some problem, never have hesitation in consulting another experienced tester or even the developer. Following considerations will be helpful while writing up the problem: # Whether the problem is due to any issue related to setup – like it might be due to installation of improper versions or the use the incorrect login, violation of security aspects, use of incorrect command or incorrect sequence of tasks etc. # Whether the problem is due to incomplete cleanup or due to incomplete results, due to manual interruption by some of the previous tests etc. # Whether the problem is due to network or some other environment related issues. 3) Be objective & neutral: The problem must be defined objectively & with a neutral attitude. There should not be any place of personal emotions & humor in your reporting. Many a times we get so much impulsive to report while taking a problem as funny from our viewpoint & don’t realize that our emotional reporting is liable to create serious barrier in healthy communication and will hamper the teamwork. Try to redraft the comments – even if you are rightly able to contradict the developers & are having strong evidence to support your viewpoint. Never ever try to write comments that do not communicate any useful information, rather liable to be taken as accusations against any individual. If you desire to be respected & increase your credibility, study all your comments & the problem description carefully prior to reporting. Read the complete article at http://www.softwaretestinggenius.com/articalDetails.php?qry=757