Defect Severity

Defect Severity determines the defect’s effect on the application. It represents the impact on the business of the client. Defect Severity is totally based on how important functionality is blocked or if that functionality functions incorrectly & accordingly add Defect Severity.

What is Defect Severity?

Severity means how severe it is affecting the functionality. It is totally related to the quality standard or devotion to standard. The severity type is defined by the Software Tester based on the written test cases and functionality. Severity is associated with quality standards or devotion to standard. It is related to technical aspect of the product & decides based on how bad the bug is for the system.

Severity of defect means how big functionality is affecting of the product. Also we can say The Severity status is used to explain how badly the deviation is affecting the build. Based on Bug Severity the product fixes are done.

It is classified into the different categories but it can vary on organization, projects, people or defect tracking tool. Here is the standard classification of Defect Severity:

• Critical: It affects the critical functionality & cannot able to test application further. Testing cannot be started with any workaround as well.
• Major: Major functionality not working but able to test application. It has workaround but not obvious.
• Minor: Bug in Functionality but in the sub module or one under the other module. The minor feature in the module but has workaround from other module easily.
• Trivial: Issues in location of the object or the look and feel issue.

It is also denoted as S1 for Critical Severity, S2 for Major Severity, S3 for Minor Severity & S4 for Trivial Severity.

Definition of Severity

The degree of impact that a defect has on the development or operation of a component or system.

For more details on Priority & severity difference, see What is difference between Priority and Severity?

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