Software Design Debugging

Goal

Find the real cause of a bug and leave the code more diagnosable than before.

Debugging Workflow

1. Reproduce or characterize the failure.
2. State the expected behavior and the observed behavior.
3. Form one hypothesis at a time.
4. Gather evidence with the narrowest tool: test, log, debugger, trace, or inspection.
5. Identify the broken invariant or missing contract.
6. Apply the smallest fix at the cause, not the symptom.
7. Add a regression check if the behavior can recur.

Design Checks