A lightweight and flexible process for designing intuitive error handling and effective error messages

  • Authors:
  • Sarah Packowski

  • Affiliations:
  • IBM Canada Lab

  • Venue:
  • CASCON '09 Proceedings of the 2009 Conference of the Center for Advanced Studies on Collaborative Research
  • Year:
  • 2009

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Abstract

Unintuitive error handling and ineffective messages result in lost revenue, wasted time, and unsatisfied customers. Yet, error conditions are often considered edge cases. As a result, a focus on error conditions is usually left until late in the software design and development cycle and is sometimes limited to just resolving unexpected test case failures. This paper outlines a process that enables software development teams to collaborate more effectively to produce intuitive error handling and useful error messages. The process is structured: there are artifacts to produce and rituals to step through. However, the process is also lightweight and flexible. In addition, the process scales well for small and large projects. This paper also describes the benefits that the IBM® DB2® for Linux®, UNIX®, and Windows® (henceforth referred to as IBM DB2 LUW) software development team discovered after adopting this process, including better quality messages, a shorter and easier-to-manage translation cycle, and improved integration between error messages and related product documentation.