According to Google, a Software bug is “an error, flaw, failure or fault in a computer program or system that causes it to produce an incorrect or unexpected result, or to behave in unintended ways.”

Before jumping onto a task, we have this propensity of having a vision of what we wish to accomplish. It could be as simple as reaching office on time or, say, finishing the jobs assigned to us in the stipulated time. Similarly, when developers start typing out a piece of software code, they have in mind a specific set of features and their various aspects of functioning.

For example, Whatsapp’s latest version allows users to update a story which is visible for 24 hours to people in their contact list. Now, the workforce behind developing this feature could have various questions in mind,

“Should the Whatsapp status still be visible to people deleted from contact list after posting it?”

“Whether viewers of that status could specifically reply to it?” and many more.

If the final product can satisfy these aspects and many more which the developers aimed at adding to it, we say the app has produced the desired outcome.

But, just like perfection is a myth, erroneous outputs are a part and parcel of any piece of code. To reduce such errors, or in technical terms, ‘bugs’, companies hire testers who go through every minutest of the options, like any other user does, but with the endeavor to find all the faults and undesired results showing up.  These are then removed by the coding team to yield the less-flawed version of the same software.

Adding more exciting and work-simplifying features to an app is necessary for companies to attract new users and to also keep the allure of the app for the existing users intact. Hence, using the terminology ‘less flawed’ divulges the fact that a completely bug free code cannot be attained since errors are bound to crop up as developers go about adding more aspects to their already existing app or software.

As the traditional saying goes, “Prevention is better than cure”. Therefore, being entirely dependent on a skillful set of testers isn’t an attribute attached to companies that stand strong as producers of error-free apps. Here is a list of ways to tackle the nuisance these bugs are:

1. Involve the tester team from the day the first line of code is written.

2. Keep an organized log of bugs and how they were tackled in the building up stage.

3. Provide general users with a portal to share any errors they face, which’ll help reach closer to perfection.

To summarize, it’s a well-accepted certitude that ideality can only be tended to, and not precisely achieved. Applying this fact to a technical software, on one hand, we need to accept our limitations, but on the other hand, comprehend the idea that reducing the bugs is something that is as essential as the endeavor of coming up with a product that helps provide solutions to people in their daily lives.

Let’s BUILD A BUG DEFEATING SOFTWARE WORLD!