Severity and Priority

What is Severity and Priority

Severity and Priority are very important aspects of a defect. These are used to categorize and prioritize issues found during testing.

What is Severity

Severity of a Defect means, Impact or seriousness of the Defect on the Functionality of the Software or Application or System.

Severity indicates, how seriously the defect has affected the functionality of the Software and to what extent, is it going to disrupt the normal operation.

There are different levels of Severity.

Highest
High
Medium
Low

What is Priority

Priority of a defect means, How urgent or fast, do we want the defect to be fixed.
Priority indicates the importance or urgency of resolving the defect.
Priority of the defect impacts business, brand image and other monetory factors related to business.

There are different levels of Priority.

Highest
High
Medium
Low

Example of Severity and Priority

1. High Severity High priority defect – When the System crashes completely. Unable to launch application. Unable to login application. Why are we calling it High Severity because it has impacted the launch functionality and login functionality badly, So that’s why it is high severity and why are we calling it High Priority defect, because we have to see that which functionality is impacted, it is launch or login, so it needs to be fixed urgently as the business is down because the end user is not able to launch the application or not able to login the application and they might move to some other businesses. So this kind of scenario is an example of High Severity High priority defect
2. Low Severity High priority defect – When Flipkart websites shows a logo of Amazon or Amazon websites shows a logo of Flipkart instead of their own, so it impacts the brand of the company, but it doesn’t impact the application and it doesn’t impact any functionality of the system, and that’s why it is a low severity defect but it very urgent to fix the issue as it impacts the brand of the company, which is the most important thing in the business, and that’s why it high priority defect. So this kind of scenario is an example of Low Severity High priority defect
3. High Severity Low priority defect – Let’s take an example, where a customer has placed an Order but didn’t like it, so then exchanged it but didn’t like this time as well and now trying to return the item, but not able to return it, So if we think of Severity, then it should be High severity because the return functionality is broken but when we talk about the priority, then what are the chances for somebody to return an exchanged item, very less, So it becomes a low priority defect. So this kind of scenario is an example of High Severity Low priority defect.
4. Low Severity Low priority defect – These type of defects are like cosmetic defects. They have very minimal impact on the functionality and very minimal impact on the Business or Brand Image. Let’s say, We have a product in an eCommerce Website and the product description says TShir instead of TShirt, So this is a typo error, and doesn’t impact the functionality or the business. Same way, if the Product alignment is not proper and images are displayed bigger then expected or smaller then expected, then those type of defects come under this category.

Importance of Severity and Priority

When we assign Severity and Priority levels to a defect, then it becomes very easy for Testing Team, Developers and other stakeholders to manage the project level activities. Here are the main benefits of Severity and Priority.

1. Effective Issue Management: When we assign Severity and Priority levels to a defect, then it becomes very easy to prioritize a defect and provide resolution based in the priority and severity level. So, the defect management becomes very effective because of severity and priority.
2. Resource Allocation: By assigning severity and priority levels to defects, testing teams and development teams can allocate their limited resources efficiently. Critical defects with high severity and priority are given immediate attention, so that they can be resolved first.
3. Risk Mitigation: Severity and priority allow organizations to mitigate risks associated with software defects. Critical defects with high severity may pose significant risks to the system’s functionality, security, or user experience. So, if they are addressed and resolved on time, the Risk can be reduced.
4. Business Impact Assessment or evaluation: When we assign Severity and Priority levels to a defect, then we can identify that which defect is having what impact on the functionality and on the Business. By prioritizing high-priority defects that directly affect critical functionalities or business operations, organizations can ensure that their core processes remain functional with minimize disruption to end-users.
5. Decision Making: When we assign Severity and Priority levels to a defect, then it helps us in making informed decisions during the software development lifecycle. For example, if we have more critical issues, then we can decide that we should not release our product now, and we should resolve them first, then only the product should be released.
6. Communication and Collaboration: Severity and priority levels provide a common language for communication and collaboration between testers, developers, and stakeholders. This way, they can communicate with each other on which defects to be addressed and which after that. So this helps in effective communication.

So, these are the main importance of severity and priority.

Difference between Severity and Priority

Priority	Severity
Priority of a defect means, How urgent or fast, do we want the defect to be fixed.	Severity of a Defect means, Impact or seriousness of the Defect on the Functionality of the Software or Application or System.
Priority indicates the importance or urgency of resolving the defect.	Severity indicates, how seriously the defect has affected the functionality of the Software.
Priority of the defect impacts business, brand image and other monetary factors related to business.	Severity impacts the functionality and stability of an application.
Priority of defects is decided in collaboration with the manager/client	Software Tester determines the severity level of the defect
Priority value of the defect might change with time.	Severity value does not change with time, it’s fixed.

Summary

We have discussed below topics today in our session.

1. What is Severity of a defect.
2. What is priority of a defect.
3. Example of Severity and Priority
4. Importance of Severity and Priority
5. Difference between Severity and Priority

Question

Give an example of each High Priority High Severity, High Priority Low Severity, Low Severity Low Priority, High Severity Low Priority defect from Online Banking Application