High severity · High priority
Checkout charges the customer but order creation fails. Core revenue flow and reconciliation are at risk.
QA guide · Triage
Severity vs priority: decide with impact and timing, not labels
Severity asks how badly the defect affects the product or user. Priority asks how urgently the team should address it. They influence each other, but they are not the same decision.
A practical decision frame
Severity inputs: scope of impact, data loss, blocked workflow, security/privacy exposure, accessibility barrier and availability of a workaround.
Priority inputs: release timing, number of affected users, business criticality, legal/compliance deadline, support load, workaround cost and fix risk.
Four scenarios
High severity · Lower immediate priority
A destructive admin-only workflow fails in a feature disabled for all production tenants. Impact is severe if enabled, urgency may be lower today.
Low severity · High priority
A typo appears in the company name on a homepage launching in a national campaign tomorrow. Functionality is intact; business urgency is high.
Low severity · Low priority
A minor alignment issue appears in a rarely used secondary panel with no usability impact.
Triage worksheet
- What user goal is affected?
- How many users or roles can hit it?
- Is there a safe workaround?
- What happens if we ship it?
- What deadline makes timing important?
- What evidence supports the chosen rating?
Practice task
Pick three findings in the QA Lab. Give each a severity and a separate priority, then write one sentence defending each decision.
Ferramenta gratuita
Revise a qualidade do seu bug report antes de enviar.
O QA Evidence Generator roda localmente no navegador, dá um score determinístico de completude, aponta lacunas e exporta Markdown ou HTML pronto para PDF.
Practice it
Use a real browser exercise, not only a definition.
The QA + Security Bug Hunt Lab gives you a self-contained storefront with intentional findings, reporting templates, scoring and an answer key.
Open the QA Lab on Gumroad ↗