Jun 16
Suggestion to replace the removed/withdrawn “delete” button with “request deletion” button.
It is no news that we testers on the platform are unable to delete our submitted ticket if the ticket has been reproduced by other testers, which is a measure put in place to:
1. Safeguard the interest and effort of bug reproducers.
2. Prevent arbitrary deletion of bugs; which are deleted for some certain reasons that range from deleting bug after place-holding purpose have been achieved.
3. Also to increase the quality of cycle results in terms of the number of submitted and forwarded bugs, as a cycle with many bugs, but with lot of rejections does not represent quality. With the delete button removed testers will be more careful with their submissions and submit a ticket only when they are totally sure of the bug. And this will bring about quality in cycle results.
4. With the delete button removed, I think this will also curb the issue of unnecessary and unhealthy competition in bug submissions by testers, which brings about nervousness and does not help the mental health of testers. Now testers will be very careful of submitting duplicate bugs and as a result make testers take chill pill and calm down when submitting bugs, which goes a long way in ensuring good mental health, as there will be reduced race in bug submission that can bring about nervousness.
I also think this will indirectly solve the issue of pretesting and placeholding, because pretesters that pretest based on the thought that they can all race to submit a found bug while pretesting and can be deleted, if it is a duplicate, will now be more careful than ever. Also testers who placehold will also be more careful, as they won’t want to placehold, because they won’t be able to delete their submitted tickets anymore when reported by testers in the chat as a placeholder.
However, despite all the pros, there are still some issues that are beyond testers volition, which make them submit bugs that needs deletion and they range from:
1. Technical issues - Issues with proxy while testing that results in bugs, which wouldn’t happen if proxy is working properly.
2. Unclear and misleading instructions - At times, the provided briefings and instructions may not be clear enough that makes tester report what they think is an inconsistency as per the provided instructions.
3. Duplicate - It is possible that despite thorough check for dups, a tester may still submit a bug which will end up being a duplicate of another bug. How? Another tester may be faster in documenting their findings and during the course of reporting the found bug, someone else may report it. Also in case of merged test cycles, where forwarded bugs from another test cycle are sent to the cycle where a tester who has checked thoroughly for duplicate has just submitted his bug, it will be fair for such tester to request for deletion with reason as duplicate.
In case of the above, testers would at least like to delete their bug and not have them rejected, as they believe that they shouldn’t pay for errors in instructions or technical issues.
That is why I have suggested that there should be a “request deletion” button.
How will this feature work?
This feature will be replacing the removed “delete” button. It will be available for testers to utilize upon submitting their bug, if they later realized that the bug is not a bug after clarifications by the Tl or CSM in chat.
On the tap of the “request deletion” button, a field or modal will pop up for the tester to input the reason for the deletion request and then tap on submit.
All the requests will be handled by the Tl when moderating bugs ( This won’t be additional load for the Tl, as bugs deletion requests won’t be made every time, as tester are now made to be more careful than ever). The Tl will then grant or decline the request based on the deletion reason provided by the tester. If the request is granted, the bug will be successfully deleted, if declined, the bug will return to awaiting review status and the Tl will moderate the bug normally and accepts or reject based on the validity of the bug.
The Tl will decide if the provided reason is enough to delete the bug so that the interest of the bug reproducers will be safeguarded.
Bug reports that fall under these category will have their deletion request declined:
1. Placeholder bugs - A bug submitted by a tester that has been reported a placeholder in chat should have their deletion request declined.
2. Product of pretesting - A bug that has been reported with clear evidence in chat, that it is found when and a clear product of pretesting shouldn’t have their deletion request granted, when the tester tries to play smart by deleting the bug ( So that they won’t face rejection by the Tl based on provided evidence in chat).
3. OOS - A bug that is out of scope shouldn’t have their deletion request granted. Testers need to pay for not paying careful attention to provided instructions or not even reading the instructions and this will go a long way in distinguishing and setting gap between those who take time to read instructions, as they will have less rejections and their quality increasing.
4. WAD - Bugs that is working as designed or working as intended should not have their deletion request granted when the tester realizes their mistake. Testers are supposed to be researchers and shouldn’t just report anything.
Thank you and long reign Testio, you guys rock!
Completed