Priority + Severity
What is Priority? 🚦
Priority refers to the order in which a defect should be fixed based on its urgency and business impact. It helps determine the fix timeline.
High Priority 🚨 - The defect has a major business impact and needs to be fixed immediately. It may cause system crashes, data loss, or affect key workflows.
Medium Priority ⚠️- The defect has moderate business impact and should be fixed in the short term. It may cause issues for some users under specific conditions.
Low Priority 🚥- The defect has minimal impact and can be fixed later. It may be a minor UI or cosmetic issue that doesn't affect functionality.
What is Severity? 💥
Severity refers to the level of impact a defect has on the system and users. It is determined based on factors like scope, frequency, reproducibility etc.
Critical Severity 🤯- The defect makes the system completely unusable or causes complete data corruption or data loss. Highest severity, needs immediate fix.
High Severity ❗️- Major functionality is impacted, no workarounds. Crashes system or severely slows performance. Highly reproducible.
Medium Severity ⚠️ - Some functionality is impaired but system can still operate. Moderate effect on users, doesn't happen frequently.
Low Severity 😕- Minimal impact, doesn't significantly affect functionality or usability. Cosmetic issues, edge cases.
Differences
We need to distinguish between the two, as defects with high severity may not have high priority.
For example, a minor defect with a low severity rating may not significantly impact the software’s quality and functionality. Still, it could have a high priority rating if it affects a critical business process. On the other hand, a defect that has a high severity rating but doesn’t have a big effect on the business may have a lower priority.
Let’s take a look at their differences:
A Tester's Role 👩💻
Testers assign priority and severity to defects based on their analysis. This helps developers understand the importance and urgency to fix them. Proper priority and severity ensures critical defects get addressed first!
How to Determine Severity and Priority in Software Testing
We could use several criteria to figure out how bad or important a defect is, such as:
Impact on functionality: We consider the impact of the defect on the software’s ability to perform its intended function. A defect that affects critical functionality will have a higher severity and priority rating
Frequency of occurrence: We consider how often the defect occurs in the software. A defect that occurs frequently will have a higher priority rating, even if its severity is low
Business impact: We consider the impact of the defect on the business. A defect that impacts critical business processes or results in financial loss will have a higher priority rating
User impact: We consider the impact of the defect on the user experience. A defect that causes significant inconvenience or frustration to the user will have a higher priority rating
By considering these criteria, we can determine the severity and priority of a defect and prioritize them accordingly.
Now that we know about these criteria, let’s look at a flow chart of prioritizing defects based on severity and priority:
As we can see, severity is usually determined first, followed by priority. Once we determine the severity, we’ll assign the priority based on the urgency with which the defect needs to be addressed. This allows us to ensure that critical defects are addressed first while less critical defects are addressed promptly.
Severity vs Priority: How They Work Together
Severity and priority are closely related in software testing but are not the same. Severity measures the technical impact, while priority measures the business impact.
We need to consider both factors to determine the severity and priority of a defect.
Let’s have a look at a few examples:
The table above shows that a high-severity bug might not have a high priority if it doesn’t affect the user or business significantly. Similarly, a low-severity defect may have a high priority if it substantially affects the user or the business.
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