Preparing for My First Bug Bash

I recently started back into software testing and joined the mobile team in Glofox.

One of the first things I got to jump into was running a bug bash remotely for the new team. I’m not going to lie, I was incredibly nervous as I’d never run one before, never mind running one remotely.

Getting the Context

The team had been working on developing a new feature for clients that was going to be a pretty big release for the business.

One of the developers on my new team, Luisa, suggested that a bug bash would be a good opportunity to help polish the feature before rolling it out.

The team asked if I’d be willing to help them prepare for and host the bug bash. Cue the deer in headlights moment 😳 I had never run or participated in a bug bash! I knew Conor Fitzgerald had blogged about running one though so I made a mental note to track that down. Luisa offered to help me run the session too so I wouldn’t be completely out of my depth.

Luisa also mentioned that the best bug bash she had ever had the opportunity to attend in the company had been run by Julia. So, the first question I asked was “Why?” Followed by “What made it better than other ones you attended?”

With my head spinning full of ideas based on the answers the team gave to those questions, I set about getting the ideas down into a Google doc.

Finding Resources

The next step was to find Conor’s blog where he talked about the Guidelines for Running a Bug Bash. I pulled out parts of this that I thought would work in our context based on the information I had so far.

Then I asked in the test team Slack channel if anyone had any resources from running one in the company in the past. Again, Julias name popped up! She had been working on a template for bug bashes and had some resources to share with me.

Using Conors blog, Julia’s resources, and the Google doc of ideas, I was starting to form a picture of where I wanted to go with this.

Pairing

Julia offered to pair with me to get a template together for the session. I jumped at the opportunity! We went through everything she had shared with me and how she structures bug bashes herself along with things to watch out for based on her experiences. I asked a lot of questions to help decide if the ideas I had for the approach would work. We wrapped up with Julia offering to help however she could in advance of the session. I was starting to feel less out of my depth now.

Next, I paired with Luisa. We went through my Google doc of ideas and the tips Julia had shared. We agreed on what we wanted to get from the session, what we didn’t want from the session and divided up tasks to be done in advance of the bug bash.

We agreed that I would set up a template Miro board for the session and we’d pair again the following week to refine it once together and then once more with Julia before we had the actual bug bash.

We wanted to be sure that we were giving the bug bash a good structure so that everyone would find it valuable and we really felt like we were starting to get there.

In an effort to keep my blogs shorter, I’ve split this story into 3 parts. You can now read part 2 and part 3.