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Jonathan Hall
Jonathan Hall

Posted on • Originally published at jhall.io on

What causes bugs?

Here’s something I’ve been thinking about lately: What causes bugs?

I don’t mean in micro sense in which the answer might be “typos” or “confusing logic” or “incorrect copy/paste.”

I mean from a business standpoint.

What behaviors, structures, or cultural traits lead to bugs?

Here are a few I’ve thought of.

  • Deadlines
  • Inexperienced developers
  • Developers not writing their own tests
  • Developers not being responsible for their own software deployments
  • A development team not responsible for fixing its own bugs
  • A long delay between bug creation and bug fixing

What would you add to the list? Do you disagree with any of these? Should I explain any of these more completely?


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Top comments (1)

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José Pablo Ramírez Vargas

For me the most important source is the lack of understanding of the requirements or consequences of a piece of code. In other words, missed edge/frontier cases. Weird combinations of circumstances, or unexpected ways people use your software, etc. Those.