Defect_Severity and Priority


Defect:
A defect in a software is regarded as the failure to meet the end user requirements.
  • Defect is found during validation.
  • Denotes that the actual behavior of the application is not matching with the expected behavior.
  • Defect is characterized by Severity and Priority.
Severity:
Severity denotes the impact of the defect on the application.
Following are the guidelines to set the severity of the defect.
  • Severity-1(Blocker): System crash,blocking the testing work.
  • Severity-2(Critical):  Sever memory leak,loss of data,many features not working.
  • Severity-3(High):      Major loss of function,entire feature not working.
  • Severity-4(Medium):One or few test cases of a feature not working.
  • Severity-5(Cosmetic/Trivial):Difference in font size or color.Not impacting the functionality.
  • Severity-6(Enhancement):This is enhancement request which is useful for the end customer but not a part of current requirements.
Following are the guidelines to set the Priority of the defect.
  • Priority-1: These defects are typically show stopper defects and are critical in nature.They need to be fixed immediately and generally that translates to the timeline of 24 hours.
  • Priority-2: These are high priority defects typically to be fixed in the next build.May be attached with the timeline of 1 week, whichever is earlier.
  • Priority-3: They are the defects with moderate priority and problems like broken graphic link on a minor page fall under this category.Usually such moderate problems can wait till the more important problems are solved.Must be fixed before releasing the product to the customer.
  • Priority-4: These are low priority defects and can be display issues,typos,grammatical issues or cosmetic issues.