Severity

In software testing, severity refers to the level of impact a defect or issue has on the functionality or usability of the software. It is a measure of how critical or damaging a defect is, influencing its prioritization for resolution. Higher severity defects are typically addressed first due to their significant effect on the system’s operation.

Key components of severity include:

• Critical Severity: Defects that cause system crashes, data loss, or prevent the application from functioning, blocking all user activities.
• Major Severity: Defects that significantly affect functionality but do not block all operations, such as incorrect calculations or failure of key features.
• Moderate Severity: Issues that affect non-critical features or workflows, which may cause inconvenience but don’t severely impact overall functionality.
• Minor Severity: Cosmetic or trivial defects, such as visual glitches or small UI inconsistencies, that do not affect the software's core functionality.

Severity helps prioritize defect resolution, ensuring that the most impactful issues are fixed first to maintain software stability and user experience.