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The language of bugs

Written or verbal bug reports use words and phrases like:

Crash
Halt
Freeze
Jank
Stutter
Not working
Blue screen
Error
Stuck
Access Violation
Shut down
Stopped
Broke
Glitch
Blow up
Illegal instruction
Restart

Some of these are more useful than others. The follow-up questions are when, where, how, etc.

This is similar to the vocabulary of emotions. A wider vocabulary allows for more accuracy and detail. It’s also important to agree on the definition of terms!

I worked in IT support for years, and this was a great basis for building and supporting software products. I learned how to ask the minimal set of questions to get the maximal amount of information.

- Karl

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