Providing feedback to software developers ( taken from XDA-Developers.com )

I'm only reposting this article which I liked. It was found here and written by XDA user joe_coolish. Aside from just bringing attention to this article, I wanted to highlight a very important point he makes in the very beginning.

In the world of software development, applications pass through many phases before being released, some of which include designing, planning, coding, testing, Alpha Release, Beta Release, Release Candidate, and finally Release.This guide is intended to help the people involved in public/private beta tests that do not have experience programming, but would like to give valuable feedback to the developer.

Disclaimer

This guide is specific to programming for the Windows Mobile Operating System, specifically for the .net Compact Framework 3.5. However, the main concepts should translate over to other platforms and frameworks.

In the beginning...

First off, programming is hard. Building applications that run smoothly and are bug free require considerable amounts of time and energy. In short, software development is an emotional investment on behalf of the developer. 

Because software development is an emotional investment, developers will easily take offense to criticism [as would anyone else with their work when they too are emotionally invested]. This is where rule number one of giving constructive feedback comes in:

Rule number #1, When Giving feedback, be polite!

Read the rest of the article here.