In bug reporting, two of the most misunderstood terms are severity and priority. They both help teams decide how bugs are handled—but they don’t mean the same thing.
Confusing them can lead to:
- Miscommunication between QA, developers, and product owners
- Wrong bug triage decisions
- Delays in release timelines
In this post, you’ll learn:
- What severity and priority actually mean
- The key differences between them
- Real examples of how to classify bugs
- Tips for reporting bugs more accurately
🧠 What Is Severity?
Severity is about impact—how bad is the bug from a technical perspective?
It reflects how much the defect affects the functionality or performance of the system.
🎯 Think: “How broken is the system?”
🔧 Common Severity Levels:
- Blocker – Testing halted, major feature non-functional
- Critical – Major function is broken, no workaround
- Major – Significant issue, but partial workaround exists
- Minor – Doesn’t affect core functionality
- Trivial – Cosmetic or UI alignment issue
🔥 What Is Priority?
Priority is about urgency—how quickly should the bug be fixed?
It’s set based on business needs, release timelines, or customer impact.
🎯 Think: “How soon do we need to fix this?”
🕒 Common Priority Levels:
- High – Needs immediate fix before release
- Medium – Fix it soon, not urgent
- Low – Fix if time permits; not time-sensitive
📊 Key Differences: Severity vs Priority
| Aspect | Severity | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| What it means | Technical impact on system functionality | Business urgency to fix the bug |
| Set by | QA/Testers | Product Owner / Project Manager / Lead |
| Based on | How serious the defect is | How fast it needs to be resolved |
| Can it change? | Usually fixed unless re-evaluated | Can change depending on business needs |
🧾 Examples of Severity vs Priority
🔴 Example 1:
Bug: Payment system crashes when submitting a valid card
- Severity: Critical (major function broken)
- Priority: High (must be fixed before release)
🟡 Example 2:
Bug: Logo is misaligned on the homepage
- Severity: Trivial (UI cosmetic)
- Priority: Low (not affecting user experience much)
🟠 Example 3:
Bug: Error message is misspelled in login page
- Severity: Minor
- Priority: Medium (user-facing error needs a fix soon)
🟢 Example 4:
Bug: Logout button not working—but only on Internet Explorer
- Severity: Major
- Priority: Low (IE support is deprecated)
🛠 Tips for QA When Reporting Bugs
- Always assign a severity level when logging a bug
- Suggest priority if asked, but let product leads decide
- Attach evidence (screenshots, videos) to support severity
- Don’t overstate severity to get attention—it affects triage quality
- Ask during standups or triage meetings if you’re unsure
🧠 Final Thoughts
Both severity and priority are critical in helping teams decide what to fix first and what can wait.
As a QA professional, your job is to:
- Identify how serious a bug is (severity)
- Communicate it clearly
- Work with your team to align it with project priorities
Getting this right builds trust with developers and keeps projects on track.
