In software projects, especially those with longer timelines and higher complexity in business rules and/or changes, it’s common to require a better structured test plan to provide visibility over the scope of changes, business rules, and what will be tested. In many cases, one person on the team is responsible for executing all scenarios and documenting bugs. However, this is a great opportunity for QA to foster collaboration among team members, promoting knowledge sharing about a specific feature and strengthening the team’s quality culture and the feeling that “Quality is everyone’s responsibility.”
What is a Bug Bash?
A Bug Bash is a collaborative testing strategy that leverages the different user profiles of all team members involved in product development—regardless of role or position—to test a specific feature or new version of the software within a short, pre-defined period of time.
With the participation of people with diverse skill sets, it’s possible to gather a wealth of insights in a short period, and it also allows everyone to get familiar with the new version of the product/feature they’ve been waiting for.
To run a successful Bug Bash, a lot of organization is required to achieve the goal within the established timeframe.
Organizing a Bug Bash
Define a clear objective for the event, such as testing functionality, usability, responsiveness, navigation, etc., or the bug bash format—whether it will be based on a checklist of scenarios/test cases or open for participants to explore and test freely as they wish!
Schedule a time with participants when everyone can actually be present, collaborating, exchanging information, and interacting so that everyone can join in. Show the team the importance of this type of event, and don’t forget to allocate extra time on the calendar for a kick-off to explain how the event will work and a wrap-up to collect the results of the bug bash.
If the event is guided by a checklist of scenarios/test cases, try to prioritize the ones with the highest business risk, so it’s feasible to execute all of them within the time limit.
Since time will be short, prepare everything in advance: the testing environment, version number, test accounts, what is and isn’t in scope, test scenarios, how to report issues in Jira (clear title, description, expected scenario, observed scenario, and evidence), a spreadsheet to help with organization.
Executing a Bug Bash
On the big day, start with a short kick-off presentation for the participants, explaining all the key points: objectives, time, rules, and additional information.
Be available to answer any questions participants might have about the feature, test scenarios, or business rules. Keep in mind you might not have much time to test yourself (though this depends on the team’s maturity/familiarity with the topic). Over time, the concepts and “how to test” will become more obvious to the team.
It’s important that participants follow the established rules (whether using a checklist or exploratory approach).
It’s common for participants with little context (such as new team members) to feel a bit shy—bring them into the loop and foster a culture of sharing.
Encourage people to share their screens and clarify their doubts clearly, promoting learning.
If more than one discussion/question arises at the same time, open a second temporary call on Teams to dive deeper into the topic and return to the main call when finished, sharing a summary of what was discussed. Don’t forget to document it!
At the end of the timebox, hold a closing ceremony, gathering feedback from participants and thanking them for their involvement. If possible, show the preliminary results: how many test cases were verified, how many bugs were reported, how many improvement suggestions the team submitted, etc.
If there wasn’t enough time to execute all test cases, no problem—just try to test as much as possible within the defined timeframe.
Last but not least (Bonus): Think of ways to gamify the bug bash, offering prizes to the participant who reported the most issues or the most critical business issue. Use your creativity to drive engagement!
Communicating the Results
Decide how you will report the results: via email, PDF, team presentation—regardless of the format, don’t delay this step!
In some cases, you may need to consult the person who reported a specific bug to gather more information.
Did new scenarios/test cases appear? Great… don’t forget to enrich the scenario spreadsheet for the next iteration.
Rely on help from stakeholders like PM, TL, and Design to address the issues and clearly prioritize what’s blocking the release and what can be postponed.
Share and collect feedback from participants to improve the process for the next iteration and keep the team engaged.
Happy testing! 🐞🎉