Repro scenario – Reporting Bugs chapter 2

Now, after my first blog post on reporting bugs, you’re in the right mood to start selling your issues. But you might be in the mist on what I mean with to-the-point repro scenario. If so read on; if not … also read on, don’t be afraid to learn. [;)]

To-the-point means to me that the repro scenario will lead the engineer straight forward to the bug you are reporting. No need for her to spend too much time to get it reproduced. Just remember: the faster reproduced, the faster – and often better – it get fixed!

So how to lead the engineer in a straight forward manner to the result? By describing:

1. Setup
   the setup you were working on when you encountered the bug
2. Preparations
   the preparatory actions needed before the actual repro actions can be performed
3. Actions
   main action to be performed to show the bug
4. Actual Result
   the actual behavior of the system, i.e. the result you are reporting as the bug
5. Expected Result
   the behavior you had expected

But … it’s not only the wording that does the trick. It’s also how you present them. The better the layout the easier to read and execute upon.

So how would that look like in a real world case? I’ll show you one example based on an incident reported to MS (incident 9594805).

Problem description

In NAV 2009 SP1 report Sales Quote (REP204) fails when I execute it from the sales quote window (FOR41) with “Sell-to Customer No.” = ” AND “Sell-to Contact No.” <> ”
[so “Sell-to Customer No.” is empty while “Sell-to Contact No.” is populated]
The thing is that when I create a new contact (of type Company) I can create a sales quote for that new contact, but I cannot print it.

The error does not exist on NAV50SP1.

Setup

NAV2009 SP1 RTC (w1, but also on other country versions like NL and DE)

Preparations

Using CRONUS demo database no preparatory actions needed.

Repro Scenario

1. Open Contact: CRONUS International Ltd./Departments/Sales & Marketing/Sales/Contacts
2. Select ‘New’ to create a new contact
3. Enter following data:

No. = TEST
Type = Company
Name = Luc van Vugt
Address = My Street 41
Post Code = 1234 MS
City = MyCity

4. Country/Region Code = NL
5. Select ‘Sales Quotes’ to open Sales Quotes list place
6. Select ‘New’ to create a new sales quote

7. Click ‘ENTER’ to let system insert a number (‘No.’) for the quote

Intermediate Result

Following fields will be populated by the system:

Sell-to Contact No. = TEST
Sell-to Customer Name = Luc van Vugt
Sell-to Address = MyStreet 41
Sell-to Post Code = 1234 MS
Sell-to City = MyCity
Order Date = 27-1-2011
Document Date = 27-1-2011

Steps (continued)

8. Enter: Sell-to Customer Template Code = GB-SMALL
9. Enter (on Lines)

Type = Item
No. = 1000
Quantity = 2

10. Select ‘Print’ and Request Page of report Sales – Quote appears
11. Click ‘Preview’

Actual Result

Error message: Customer No. ” does not exist.

Expected Result

Report will run and show preview of sales quote for contact TEST with right details (as entered on quote as above).