SEVERITY AND PRIORITY

SEVERITY

The first step is to determine the scope or extent of the problem -- how much of the site is affected? How many pages are broken? How important is the broken functionality?

• Severity should reflect a qualitative appraisal of the problem's extent without any discussion of where the problem appears on the "to fix" lists.

• Severity is the one which states how bad or critical the bug is. It is usually reported by the tester to the developing team....
• Severity defines the importance of defect with respective to functional point of view
• Severity means impact of the defect.

· Severity of a defect is set based on the issue's seriousness

· Severity = how bad/tough is it?

LEVELS of severity

· Critical

· Major

· Minor

PRIORITY

Priority is the level which determines which bug needs to be fixed first...whether it is of high priority or can it be resolved (not fixed in this release).

• It is usually determined by the developing team or the manager...
• Priority defines the importance of defect with respective to customer point of view. Priority means how soon the bug has to fix, (importance of the defect).

• Priority = how important is it to do
• The second step is judging the priority of the problem. Priority describes an assessment of the importance of a problem.

Some Priority Guidelines

Critical priority: the priority is so high it must be done now. Critical items should be tackled first, because the effects of such a problem cascades down the site's functionality and infrastructure.

High priority: these are problems that are very important, and that are required before the next "big" phase, i.e., they must be solved before launch, or grand opening, or before the news conference, etc. Any problem interfering with major site functionality is a high priority. Any problem that will make you or your site look stupid or incompetent or untrustworthy is a high priority.

Moderate priority; these are problems like a broken graphic or link on a minor page, or a page that displays badly in some browsers. Moderate problems can usually wait until the more important problems are cleaned up, a common approach during "crunch times".

Low priority: these are display issues affecting a few pages, such as typos or grammatical mistakes, or a minor element that is wrong on many pages.