In the context of

software quality In the context of software engineering, software quality refers to two related but distinct notions: * Software's functional quality reflects how well it complies with or conforms to a given design, based on functional requirements or specificat ...

, defect criticality is a measure of the impact of a software defect. It is defined as the product of severity, likelihood, and class. Defects are different from

user stories In software development and product management, a user story is an informal, natural language description of features of a software system. They are written from the perspective of an User (computing)#End user, end user or User (system), user o ...

, and therefore the priority (severity) should be calculated as follows.

Severity/impact

* 0 - Affects critical data or functionality and leaves users with no workaround * 1 - Affects critical data or functionality and forces users to employ a workaround * 2 - Affects non-critical data or functionality and forces users to employ a workaround * 3 - Affects non-critical data or functionality and does not force users to employ a workaround * 4 - Affects aesthetics, professional look and feel, “quality” or “

usability Usability can be described as the capacity of a system to provide a condition for its users to perform the tasks safely, effectively, and efficiently while enjoying the experience. In software engineering, usability is the degree to which a softw ...

”

Likelihood/visibility

* 1 - Seen by all or almost all users who use the application (>=95% of users) * 2 - Seen by more than 2/3 of the users who use the application (>67% and <95%) * 3 - Seen by about half the users who use the application (>33% and <66%) * 4 - Seen by about 1/3 or less of the users who use the application (>0% and <32%)

Class of defect

Class 0

* Stability,

Reliability Reliability, reliable, or unreliable may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Computing * Data reliability (disambiguation), a property of some disk arrays in computer storage * Reliability (computer networking), a category used to des ...

and Availability * Security * Legal (Liability, ADA, Copyright) *

Testability Testability is a primary aspect of science and the scientific method. There are two components to testability: #Falsifiability or defeasibility, which means that counterexamples to the hypothesis are logically possible. #The practical feasibilit ...

* Storage (

data loss Data loss is an error condition in information systems in which information is destroyed by failures (like failed spindle motors or head crashes on hard drives) or neglect (like mishandling, careless handling or storage under unsuitable conditions) ...

/corruption)

Class 1

* Performance and Efficiency (use of resources: memory, disk, CPU) * Scalability

Class 2

* Functionality * Logic or

Calculation A calculation is a deliberate mathematical process that transforms a plurality of inputs into a singular or plurality of outputs, known also as a result or results. The term is used in a variety of senses, from the very definite arithmetical ...

* Compatibility *

Interoperability Interoperability is a characteristic of a product or system to work with other products or systems. While the term was initially defined for information technology or systems engineering services to allow for information exchange, a broader de ...

Class 3

* Usability * Learn ability * Readability * Documentation * Consistency * Workflow (“feel”)

Class 4

* Typographic or

grammatical In linguistics, grammaticality is determined by the conformity to language usage as derived by the grammar of a particular speech variety. The notion of grammaticality rose alongside the theory of generative grammar, the goal of which is to formu ...

Aesthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...

* Appearance or Cosmetic

Assessing the criticality score

* 0–2 = Critical * 3–9 = Major * 10–20 = Medium * 21–64 = Low

References

{{reflist Software bugs Software development Quality assurance