In Software testing, when any tester logs any defects then he/she mentions the severity and priority in the defect. Based on the severity and priority, developer can decide the how defects should be fixes soon and what will be impact on the business workflow.
Severity : Severity is defined as the what is the impact on the business workflow the defect. It is one kind of the parameter to identify the impact of the defect on the feature of the software product.
Priority : Priority is also one of the parameters of the defect which is decides to how soon defect should be fixed. If any defect has high priority, then it should be fixed as soon as possible.
In this article we will discuss the difference between the Severity vs Priority.
Difference between Severity and Priority
| Severity | Priority |
| Severity is one of parameter of defect which is identify to impact of the defect on the functionality of the software products. | Priority is one of the parameters of the defect which is decides to how soon defect should be fixed. |
| Severity types: CriticalModerateMajorMinor | Priority types: HighMediumLow |
| Test engineers decides the severity of the defect. | Priority is decided by the product manager. |
| Severity is related to quality standard of the product. | Priority is related to scheduling to fix the issue. |
| Example: High Severity Defect: Login button is not working. Severity : High | Example : High Priority Defect: Login button is not working. Priority: High |
| Example: Low Severity Defect: Spelling mistake on the “About us” page. Severity: Low | Example: Low Priority Defect: Spelling mistake on the “About us” page. Priority: Low |
| Example: Low Severity Defect: Spelling mistake of the website’ title on the home page. Severity: Low | Example: High Priority Defect: Spelling mistake of the website’ title on the home page. Priority: High |
| Example: High Severity Defect: When user clicks on the privacy policy page, user navigates on the blank page. Severity: High | Example: Low Priority Defect: When user clicks on the privacy policy page, user navigates on the blank page. +Priority: Low |
Conclusion
So in this way, severity and priory two are important parameters of the defects. Based on these parameters, developer can fix the issues. If you are looking for more examples then please visit below links.
1. Static Testing And Dynamic Testing
2. Smoke Testing And Sanity Testing
3. Black Box Testing And White Box Testing