Bug Severity Calculator
Determine the right severity and priority for any bug. Answer 5 questions, get a consistent rating.
User Impact
How many users are affected?
Functionality Impact
How does the bug affect functionality?
Data Impact
Is user data affected?
Frequency
How often does the bug occur?
Business Impact
What's the business impact?
Severity vs Priority
Two different dimensions. Both matter.
Severity
The technical impact of the bug on the system.
- Critical — System crash, data loss, security breach
- High — Major feature broken, no workaround for core flow
- Medium — Feature impaired but workaround exists
- Low — Cosmetic issue, minor inconvenience
Severity is objective. It doesn't change based on business context.
Priority
How urgently the bug should be fixed, given business context.
- P1 Urgent — Fix immediately, drop everything
- P2 High — Fix in current sprint
- P3 Medium — Fix in next sprint
- P4 Low — Backlog, fix when convenient
Priority is subjective. A low-severity typo on a landing page might be P1 before a launch.
Pro Tips for Consistent Severity Ratings
Rate severity first, priority second
Severity is based on technical impact and doesn't change. Priority depends on business context and timelines. Separate the two to avoid bias. A critical bug in a rarely-used feature might still be P3.
Use the same scale across your team
The biggest source of inconsistency is different people using different mental models. Share this calculator with your team so "Critical" means the same thing to everyone, every time.
Consider the workaround cost
A bug with a simple workaround is less severe than one with no path forward. But if the workaround is complex or error-prone, that raises the effective severity. Factor in the user's effort, not just whether a workaround exists.
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