Using Video for Better, Faster Bug Reports and Bug Capturing

If lengthy back-and-forths when identifying, recording, and resolving bugs have got your engineering team down, let’s pick it back up with an easy-to-use tool that enables faster, more efficient bug resolution: screencast video recording. 

Video offers a host of benefits when it comes to debugging, from easily capturing and sharing bugs, providing faster processes for understanding and sharing context around bugs, or simplifying how you share a reproduction for debugging an issue. And it’s all in a tool that is straightforward to use for technical and non-technical teams. 

Let’s dive a little deeper into how video can be the tool your engineers reach for:

Document bugs quickly and easily 🛠

Effective and efficient bug identification and resolution is crucial for engineering teams to deliver a high-quality product on time. When a bug is encountered, it can waylay even the best programming, potentially requiring significant time and effort to resolve. 

While traditional methods of bug reporting and debugging typically rely on text-based communication, the rise of asynchronous video communication allows engineering teams to make this process faster and less fraught with misunderstandings and miscommunications. 

Asynchronous video allows teams to record your tab, browser, or desktop, and add in voiceovers to give your team the context needed to diagnose and resolve bugs faster. 

Instead of typing out long messages, adding multiple screenshots, or having to schedule live meetings to explain how to reproduce an issue, your team can capture all of this on asynchronous video, ultimately speeding up your QA process. What’s more, you can draw annotations on your screen to point out various and specific parts of an issue. Combined, this provides a more immersive experience and leaves less to be misinterpreted as it often is with written descriptions.

Request videos, resolve issues faster with Submit ⏱

Using asynchronous video like Screencastify allows engineering teams to resolve issues faster internally and externally. With external customers, your engineering team can request a recording of the encountered bug with Screencastify Submit. 

Like internal team members, external clients can record their desktop and easily share the video via a web link, without having to download any new software. 

With this video, your external clients can provide all the context you need to resolve bugs immediately, without time consuming back-and-forths or follow up questions. Videos are also automatically added to a Google Drive, where they can be sorted and stored to reference back to the next time an external customer encounters a bug. It also allows your team the opportunity to identify recurring issues and determine solutions, or troubleshoot similar problems. Learn more about how others use Submit below.👇

Tips for incorporating screen recorded video 🎬

Saving time, effort, and your engineering teams’ fraying nerves, asynchronous video is a critical tool to have. There are some practical tips to consider, however, when incorporating Screencastify into your processes, to help ensure smooth adoption and use for all.

1. Add asynchronous video to your bug reporting or issue tracking systems. It’s easy to add video to your existing process — you don’t need to develop an entirely new system of bug tracking. Teams can link quick videos with voiceover in specific tasks or cards in your ticketing or tracking systems, making your existing ticketing system more efficient, and saving your engineering team valuable time.

2. Provide your team with suggested guidelines for video bug reports. Using video can help you provide clear and concise bug reports, and using a structured format for your team will make recording the video that much easier. Creating guidelines for non-technical members of your team for what to include in a bug report eliminates any need for additional back-and-forths or questions, and helps your team resolve issues more quickly. Having a structured format or “script” for your team to follow ensures that all needed information is being recorded and accounted for. For example, you can direct your team to include a brief introduction, detailed steps to reproduce the bug, and/or other relevant information about the bug. 

3. Ensure communication channels are in place. Create more transparency around the status of various bugs by sharing videos of documented bugs or status updates of fixes in progress with customer-facing teams. This allows teams to better understand and communicate issues and workarounds to customers.

Learn why video is an engineer's best friend!

Work smarter, not harder, when you incorporate video into your engineering team's best debugging practices. Screencastify can show you how. Reach out today to see how we can help your team level up!