Aug 23 2004
The Bug Stops Here
The anatomy of a bug, a Software Tester from Microsoft writes about the work involved in testing a bug:
When people find out I’m a software tester at Microsoft, they’ll sometimes start a conversation with me that goes roughly as follows:
- Them: “So Microsoft has all these testers, right? Then why does your software have bugs?”
- Me: “Well, writing and testing software is difficult. We work very hard to fix all the bugs, but sometimes we miss a few.”
- Them: (snarkily) “It sounds like you need to hire more testers, then; ha ha! I am so clever.”
- Me: (holding back my inner annoyance) “Yes… that’s very… funny.”
- Them: “So Microsoft has all these testers, right? Then why does your software have bugs?”
- Me: “Well, writing and testing software is difficult. We work very hard to fix all the bugs, but sometimes we miss a few.”
- Them: (snarkily) “It sounds like you need to hire more testers, then; ha ha! I am so clever.”
- Me: (holding back my inner annoyance) “Yes… that’s very… funny.”
The author posted a follow-up, When “good enough” isn’t, in response to the popularity of his first article.
