Do you have templates for your PBIs and Bugs?

Last updated by Tiago Araújo [SSW] over 1 year ago.See history

Bugs are often hard enough to resolve but when they don't detail how to reproduce the bug, or what the expected behaviour is, it wastes a lot of time and gets frustrating for the developers. Detail in a bug report is key to your teams effectiveness and success. This is not limited to bug reports, for example PBIs can be missing Acceptance Criteria.

In Azure DevOps, a great way to ensure you capture all the information required is through templates for your work items. Templates allow you to guide users through all the required info in a clear and concise manner, ensuring you will always have clean and detailed steps to reproduce a bug.

templates for pbis and bugs   bad example
Bad example – This new bug template doesn’t make it obvious how the team likes their steps to repro

templates for pbis and bugs   good example
Good example – This new bug template guides the user to fill in the steps to repro in an ordered list and even prompts them to fill in what they expected to happen (and what actually happened)

Setting this up is pretty easy:

  1. First you need to customize the template for a work item type
    templates for pbis and bugs   customise
    Figure: Customizing a bug work item
  2. Choose the form control to edit
    templates for pbis and bugs   customise default value
    Figure: Set the default value for the Repro Steps field (Tip: use HTML)
  3. Save Template

Sample code template

<!-- These comments automatically delete -->
<!-- **Tip:** Delete parts that are not relevant -->
<!-- Next to Cc:, @ mention users who should be in the loop -->
Cc:
<!-- add intended user next to **Hi** -->
Hi 

### Describe the Bug
<!-- A clear and concise description of what the bug is. -->

### To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:
1. Go to '...'
2. Click on '....'
3. Scroll down to '....'
4. See error

### Expected Behavior
<!-- A clear and concise description of what you expected to happen. -->

### Tasks
- [ ] Investigate
- [ ] Fix

### More Information
<!-- Add any other context about the problem here. -->

### Environment
 - Device: [e.g. iPhone 12]
 - Browser: [e.g. chrome, safari]
 - OS: [e.g. iOS]

### Screenshots
<!-- If applicable, add screenshots to help explain your problem. -->

Thanks!
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