Ever receive a bug report that looks something like this?
Title: European sales office descriptions and pins not displaying.
Description: https://www.clientsite.com/locations?region=eu
Show European Sales Offices on clientsite.com NA as when viewing via other regions.
Yes, it is confusing. Just looking at the title, you wouldn’t know what “pins” are until you find out you’re working with a map. You wouldn’t know what “European Sales Offices” look like if they’re not even showing up. You wouldn’t even know what “NA” is in this description, it looks like a typo. Lastly, you won’t know what all of this is talking about if you’re new to the project.
If you have seen this kind of bug report, you’re not alone.
A lot of situations can cause “stubs” – bug reports with barely any information. Project managers could be in a meeting, and forget to fill in the details later. Or the developers assumed to be in charge of fixing the bug are in the same meeting, and adding details feels redundant. It could be that project knowledge is thought to be known by all, so no additional details are needed.
Stubs aren’t necessarily a problem. The problem is when the assumptions made fall apart, and stubs remain stubs.