Many software development teams still rely on users to report problems with their applications.
Which is kinda crazy these days.
It’s just like fast food restaurant chains. They put the onus on customers to clear their own tables by providing trays and trash disposal stations. The restaurant’s food might have been terrible. But the customer could’ve calmly cleared their table, dropped off their trash, and walked away. Unless they take the time to complain, staff assume another happy customer just left the restaurant.
But they’ll never return.
Some developers expect users to fend for themselves when using their applications. After all, if nobody is reporting problems, we don’t have any — right? Putting the onus on your users to report the problems they experience is limiting. You will see around one percent of the total instances affecting your entire user base, and technical details will be thin and inconsistent.
Developers will spend more time trying to debug the problem — using small bits of information — than fixing it. That’s if they can find the problem at all.
The future of error monitoring lies in making sure all teams — front end, back end, management or support — have complete visibility on every problem their users encounter. And then have the ability to solve it right away.