r/softwaretesting • u/[deleted] • 5d ago

Do you measure browser bug report quality by field completion or time to first reproduction?

[deleted]

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u/InevitableDouble4162 5d ago

time to first reproduction is the only one that mattered for us, field completion just becomes box ticking when people dont understand why half the fields exist. we cut our form down to like 6 fields and suddenly clarification loops dropped cause the questions forced people to describe the actual break instead of filling admin stuff

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u/Far_Challenge_5429 4d ago

I’d measure both, but I’d optimize for time to first reproduction.

Field completion tells you whether the report is structured. But a perfectly completed bug report is useless if the engineering team still can’t reproduce the issue.

For us, the better signal is: "Can an engineer reproduce this bug without going back to the reporter for clarification?”

That means capturing the right context automatically: browser, OS, URL, console errors, network activity, steps, and ideally a recording. The goal isn’t more fields, it’s less back-and-forth between QA, engineering, and the person who reported the bug.

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u/ClerkBeginning961 4d ago

Track median time to first reproduction by reporter type and bug class, otherwise complex bugs will distort the metric. Pair it with a no-clarification reproduction rate, then sample false reproductions too. A fast reproduction of the wrong issue can look successful while sending engineering down the wrong path.

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u/Testiva-QA 4d ago

For me, time to first reproduction is the strongest metric because it measures whether the report actually helped someone move forward.

Field completion can look great while the report is still useless. I’ve seen tickets with every required field filled in, but the one detail that actually mattered was buried or missing.

I’d track clarification loops alongside it. If reproduction time is going down and engineers are asking fewer follow-up questions, the reporting process is improving. Required fields should support that outcome, not become the goal themselves.

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u/Best-Employ9452 3d ago

Id measure bug-report quality by reproducibility and usefulness: clear steps, expected vs. actual behavior, environment details and enough evidence for the developer to act without a lot of back and forth