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Often the severity of a software defect can vary even though the software never changes. The reason
being is that a software defect’s severity depends on the system in which it runs.
For example, the severity of the Pentium’s floating-point defect changes from system to system. On
some systems, the severity is small; whereas on other systems, the severity is high.
Another problem (which occurs regularly) is that the definitions of the severity levels (or categories)
themselves change depending on the type of system. For example, a catastrophic defect in a nuclear
system means that the fault can result in death or environmental harm; a catastrophic defect in a
database system means that the fault can (or did) cause the loss of valuable data.
Therefore, the system itself determines the severity of a defect based on the context for which the defect
applies. The context makes all the difference in how to classify a defect’s severity.
I have attached two sample classification methods – a 3 level classification method, and a more
comprehensive 5 level classification method, which I hope you may find useful.
Explanation of Classifications
1. An "A" bug is a either a showstopper or of such importance as to radically affect the
functionality of the system i.e. :
If, because of a consistent crash during processing of a new application, a user could not
complete that application.
Incorrect data is passed to system resulting in corruption or system crashes
Example of severally affected functionality:
Calculation of repayment term/amount are incorrect
data is affected which does not have a major impact, for example - where an element of a
customer application was not propagated to the database
there is an alternative method of completing a particular process - e.g. a problem might
occur which has a work-around.
Serious cosmetic error on front-end.
3. "C" type bugs are mainly cosmetic bugs i.e.: