You've got a bug (Dont take it personal)

Developers have always, are always and will always be in a state of offense when being accused of committing a bug.

Whether they (we) like it or not, the statement:

"You've got a bug."

is an emotionally disturbing phrase for (we) the developers.

The word 'bug' by itself is so phonetically provoking. First of all, its composed from one sylable that pops out all of a sudden. "BUG", "BUg!", "bUG', "BuG", its like microwave popcorn.

It even sounds like you're cursing someone. And sometimes, it sounds like you're accusing someone of having weazels in his hair (قمل).

I try my best to avoid using the literal form of the word 'bug' by replacing it with more friendly alternatives like the words 'defect', 'malfunction', 'problem', 'leak', these words have proved to be more DES (Developer Ear Safe) words.

If you're a quality person, a customer, a manager or any person involved in auditing developer's output, then here are some alternative sentences I've collected through my career to help you out with dealing with such cases:

"The system is acting a bit wierd when I press this button."

"There's a small problem, I dont think you have uploaded the latest code."

"I found this problem, you know what, it looks like a third-party library is going nuts."

"I found this problem, are you sure no one touched the code you wrote?"

"I'm sure you haven't finished yet, I remember you told me you still have work to do in this module, I think this is why all these bugs are showing up."

Also make sure not to use the word 'you'. But always use the passive tense, and talk about it as if its a 'system' problem and not a developer's problem. Not "You've got a bug", but rather, "A strange problem is showing up here.".

Last advice, stay away from discussing this bug with the public; before the bug is fixed, while being fixed and after getting fixed. Dont discuss other people's problems if you dont like people discussing yours.