In my last entry, Joe commented on me assigning emotions to bugs.  That got me thinking that sometimes we testers do assign characteristics to bugs which are, after all, inanimate.  However, just for fun, I tried to come up with the type of emotions that bugs might have if they could feel.  I am sure that others could improve on these and/or add more.

Acceptance             A bug that accepts it will be found.  Typically a bug that is obvious as soon as you login (or even one that prevents you from logging in!

Affection                 A bug that loves other bugs.  Some bugs are gregarious and like to live together, these are generally found all in one place

Alertness                A bug that is alert to being found.  It shifts its position so that just as you think you have it nailed down, it moves somewhere else.  Memory leaks are good examples.

Ambivalence          A bug that doesn’t care whether it is found.  Typically a bug that you come across by accident

Anger                      A bug that hits you whenever you get near it, e.g. the blue screen of death

Angst                      See Anxiety

Annoyance             A bug that gets cross when it is found and causes another bug to be created once fixed

Anticipation            A bug that expects to be found and looks forward to it.  Typically a bug that keeps showing up throughout the application

Anxiety                   A bug that worries about being found.  These bugs hide in the corner and have to be winkled out with specially designed tests

Apathy                    See Ambivalence

Awe                         A bug that is amazed you have found it.  It pops up with unusual error messages like “Error: This should never happen!”

Boredom                 A bug that just gets fed up with being there.  These bugs usually go away of their own volition in the next release

Calmness                A bug that can’t get you excited.  Typically, a cosmetic bug, such as a mis-spelling

Compassion            A bug that cares about you.  This type of bug gives you an indication of what the problem is with a sensible error message.

Confusion               A bug that is not sure whether it exists or not.  Typically this type of bug can cause endless arguments with developers

Contempt                A bug that really thinks testers are lowly creatures.  Usually manifests itself with incomprehensible techno-speak in the error message

Contentment          A bug that is happy with its lot, it likes being there.  Usually these bugs are difficult to eradicate as they just like being there.

Curiosity                 A bug that looks for different parts of the application to get into to see what sort of damage it can do there.  This type of bug is often due to a continual bad coding practice throughout the application

Depression             A bug that throws itself at you suicidally.  Normally found early on in the testing cycle

Desire                     A bug that finds testers incredibly attractive.  Every tester on the project keeps finding this bug, usually finds its way into the bug tracking system multiple times.

Disappointment      A bug that is disappointed you didn’t find it.  Usually shows itself in Live

Disgust                   A bug that finds testers disgusting.  Generally gives a supercilious error message

Doubt                      A bug that doubts its cause.  Could be one of a number of different reasons why this bug exists

Ecstasy                   A bug that is high on illegal substances.

Embarrassment      A bug that is embarrassed to be found.  Generally has error messages like “Sorry, you can’t do that”

Empathy                 A bug that feels for the tester.  Typically shows itself after you have had your morning coffee and never last thing at night

Emptiness               A bug that has no content.  This type of bug is where functionality is missing that should be there.

Enthusiasm             A bug that has to show itself spectacularly, typically a system crash

Envy                       A bug that wishes it could be like other bugs.  Typically this is a bug that looks serious, but in reality is only a minor problem

Fanaticism              A bug that goes round telling other bugs how to create mayhem.  Typically a comms bug that goes round multiple systems.

Fear                        A bug that fears being found.  A particularly difficult bug to find and has to be tempted out into the open

Frustration             A bug that wishes it could be a working system Tries hard to work, so only shows itself intermittently

Gratification           A bug not found until system in Live.  This is a happy bug has defeated all attempts to find it and has finally achieved its aim of thwarting you

Gratitude                A bug that thanks you for finding it.  When it is found it shows you the position of other bugs, so you get multiple bugs shown on one screen

Grief                       A bug that is inconsolable at the death of one of its fellow bugs and gives up trying to hide.  Found when a previous bug, now fixed, was hiding this bug

Guilt                        A bug that regrets being there.  These bugs are keen to atone for their sins and are, therefore, easily fixed

Happiness              Found during “Happy path” testing.

Hatred                    A bug that hates you is one that you think you have found, but keeps coming back to haunt you in every release

Hope                       A bug that hopes not to be found.  This type of bug just sits there and waits.  It may be an easy bug to find or a difficult one, but is always obvious

Hopelessness         See Despair

Hostility                  A bug that shouts at you.  Usually shows itself with an error message ALL IN CAPS

Humiliation             A bug that is so ashamed at being found that this part of the system never displays any bugs ever again

Hysteria                 A bug that shouts and screams all over the application, causing all around to react with panic.  Usually a shows as a system crash

Inspiration              A bug that is as a result of some really clever coding brought about through an inspired developer….who got it wrong.

Jealousy                 A bug that shows the symptoms of another type of bug which is superior to it

Kindness                A bug that is kind to the developer by being easy to fix

Loneliness              A bug that is a hermit.  This type of bug is isolated from the rest of the application in an area that has no other bugs

Love                       Another gregarious bug.  Not only does this bug congregate with other bugs, it actively hangs on to them, so you find two, three or more all doing the same thing

Lust                        This is a bug that spawns other bugs.  A prolific breeder which means both tester and developer are forever chasing its children

Nostalgia                Bugs aren’t what they used to be.  This bug bemoans the fact that it hasn’t been found by Grace Hopper

Panic                       This bug causes all the parts of the system to go into meltdown.  Typically this is a tight loop that consumes all of the CPU

Patience                  This bug just takes its time.  Often seen as a Performance bug

Pride                       A bug that thinks it is the best bug in the whole system. Often surfaces before a fall-over

Repentance            A bug that feels bad about existing and once fixed, fixes a number of other bugs as a side effect

Resentment            A bug that does not like to be found, such that once fixed it re-appears again and again

Shyness                  A bug that is really hard to find and only surfaces in rare circumstances

Suffering                 A bug that causes the entire system to suffer.  Often found as a result of security testing

Surprise                  A bug that does not expect to exist.  Typically a simple bug that should have been found in unit test

Wonder                   A bug that is amazed to exist and cannot understand how a developer could possibly have coded it that way