Defect Severity

Defect Severity defines the seriousness or business impact that a particular defect has on the system. Simply it means how seriously the defect is impacting on other parts of the application.

In general there are four different Defect Severity types or levels:

1. Critical: Entire testing is affected and system is unable to use. All testing will be stopped till defect get fixed. No workaround exist to continue with testing.E.g. 404 Page not found, 500 internal server error.
2. Major: Majority of the modules are impacted. Defect needs to be fixed as soon as possible. System cannot be used until fix is done. Workaround may be available to proceed with testing.E.g. Wrong implementation, Wrong calculation.
3. Minor: Few of the testing modules are not working fine but testing can be continuing on other modules. The affected modules testing will be stopped until defect gets fixed. Workaround exist to continue testing. E.g. Wrong alignment, Inconsistency issues, spelling issues.
4. Cosmetics: Cosmetic errors which has no impact on testing deliverable and schedule.E.g. Correction of the proper background colours and the themes of GUI, modification in error messages

Depending upon the Defect Severity, developers fixes the defect. The critical or major defects needs to be fixed as early as possible as these defects affects the business.