what is severity and priority

Quick Scoop

Severity tells you how serious the problem is. Priority tells you how soon it should be fixed. In bug tracking, severity is about impact on the system, while priority is about urgency and business importance.

Simple Difference

• Severity = the effect of the issue.
• Priority = the order in which the issue should be handled.

For example, a spelling mistake on a homepage may be low severity but high priority if it affects an important customer-facing page. A crash in a rarely used feature may be high severity but not always the first thing fixed if there is a more urgent business issue.

Easy Way To Remember

• Severity asks: “How bad is it?”
• Priority asks: “How quickly do we fix it?”

Quick Example

Issue| Severity| Priority
---|---|---
App crashes when opening checkout| High| High
Minor typo in a hidden settings page| Low| Low
Wrong logo on the homepage| Low| High
Data loss bug in a core feature| High| High

Bottom Line

If you work in testing, support, or product management, use severity to measure technical impact and priority to decide the fix order.