Difference Between Severity and Priority

Severity vs Priority

We all know that bugs exist in real life and in virtual life as well. In the virtual world, we have bugs that have very few solutions. Either the person who made the program or command line that is creating the bug can eradicate this problem, or we have to get to another tool of creating items which can fix the problems. Here we are going to discuss some information regarding a bug’s severity and priority in a program’s command line or manual, physical bugs in any field.

Severity
Literally speaking, if a bug is severe, we have a problem. “Severity” may be considered as “the measure of how much the bug is problematic” or “the degree of harm that a bug may cause.” In short, if the bug is very severe, it is causing greater problems in the program.

Severity is always considered in accordance with the testers of that specific application. Testers are always in search of a new bug every time they compile the program so that no end user gets any problems regarding the product. If a user gets the product with severe bugs (that is the bugs with high priority in lags or GUID problems, etc.), he might criticize the company and will not buy any future products which will finally cause a big loss to the company.

The severity of any bug may be categorized as showstopper, major defect, minor defect, and cosmetic in the descending order. The most severe in here is labeled as a showstopper while the least severe is tagged as cosmetic, more to do with the look and feel of the program. Severity is related with the technical aspect of any program.

Priority
“Priority” means “how fast or how perfectly the bug is eradicated.” If a program has a bug, the priority will be removing this bug as soon as possible. Bug detection is done by the testers which, after detecting the bug, send it back to the developer so that the bug can be removed as soon as possible. In virtual programs, a company might also develop a beta testing version available free to users so that the users can directly report the bug missed by the testers to solve the problem for the original package in the future. The priority of the defect is then decided by the program manager or the project leader.

In short, “priority” is the assessment of how harmful the bug is and how important it is to fix. It should be fixed on the basis of the importance of the requirement. “Priority” is governed by the marketing aspect of the program.

Summary:

1.“Severity” is the measurement of the problems in a bug whereas “priority” is how fast the bug is solved.
2.“Severity” is with the consideration of the tester while “priority” is applied to the main user’s accordance.
3.“Severity” is related with the technical aspect of a program while “priority” is related to the financial aspect.
4.“Priority” is related with the schedule while “severity” is associated with the standards of the program.

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