Action, Expectation, Observation

I remember writing some parts of Practical Development Environments vividly, despite the sleep deprivation that writing a book and having a new child will produce. One such section summarizes what goes into a good bug report:

The three key points to bear in mind when creating a bug report should be:

• How to reproduce the bug, as precisely as possible, and how often this will make the bug appear


• What should have happened, at least in your opinion


• What actually happened, or at least as much information as you have recorded

I still like what I wrote. And now I think it's good advice for other situations. For example,

• Action: I was taking my brother's toy from him. It was his new toy.


• Expectation: He should have let me take it because he wasn't using it anymore


• Observation: He hit me!

Maybe I'll get it printed on my next batch of business cards:
Action, Expectation, Observation.

~Matt