Severity and Priority Differences

Differences between Severity and Priority

Whenever tester(s) report bugs to developers they assign "Severity" and "Priority" to a bug, so that developers can understand the seriousness of the bug and they can schedule bug fixes.

Severity: of a bug decides the risk factor/impact of a bug on the application tested. Severity of a bug may be classified in to different types.

 Severity Types:

1) Blocker: bug that prevents further testing or developing of software.
2) Critical: A bug that causes AUT to hang, or causes you to lose data.

3) Major: A major functionality is not working or is broken.

4) Normal: Bug that can be taken care of and it should be fixed.

5) Minor: A bug which causes loss of function, and involves an easy patch work around.

6) Trivial: A cosmetic problem, such as a typo error or UI Issue.

7) Enhancement: A Request for new functionality or suggestions.

Priority: helps in deciding the seriousness of a bug. It is the main factor which helps in scheduling bug fixes. A bug which has high severity may have low priority.

 Priority Types:

1) Blocker: the product cannot be developed further unless this bug is fixed.

2) Immediate: This bug Should be fixed ASAP or else it may ruin the

reputation.

3) High: Fix it so that it should not cause shipping to be delayed.

4) Normal: Fix it immediately after all the other higher priority bugs are done.

5) Low: Fix it so that the product is perfect and finished properly.

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