My friend came up with the 6 Stages of Debugging:
- That can’t happen
- That doesn’t happen on my machine.
- That shouldn’t happen.
- Why does that happen?
- Oh, I see.
- How did that ever work?
Update: Looks like this is an old, but still relevant list.
Although you could apply the Kübler-Ross model too:
- Denial – It must be user error! Are we sure their system is supported?
- Anger – By filing this bug you have questioned my family honour. Prepare to die!
- Bargaining – What if we just update the documentation? Can we tell the users this is a feature?
- Depression – All my code is broken! I have no idea what I am doing! I’m going to lose my job.
- Acceptance – Oh, that was easy to fix.
Do you ever find yourself in these stages?
8 replies on “6 Stages of Debugging”
You miss “that’s a feature” (;
That’s stage 3: Bargaining
Dang, how could I miss the word feature in that sentence? (:
I would add to the stages of debugging – That doesn’t happen when the developer of that part of the app is within 5 feet of the screen 🙂
That was me yesterday. Its a firmware bug, it’s a firmware bug … Oh wait. It’s a … erm .. bug :-/
@David. I’ve been known to tell users to hang a poster of me in front of the computer to that effect… 🙂
🙂 I ran through that list with a user yesterday without even knowing it. “It’s nothing to do with the new update – no other user has reported it!” – by the end – “yes it’s an issue, we’ll get a fix to you by the end of the day” – this list hits the nail on the head!
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