Bug severity: how to manage bugs more efficiently in 2023

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Bug severity is the impact a bug or defect has on software development or functionality. And despite testing efforts, many critical bugs and defects end up in production.

According to a recent study, buggy software costs U.S. companies $2.08 trillion. So finding, understanding, and addressing user-facing bugs that negatively impact functionality, usability, and UX is of the essence. The problem is, they’re not always the easiest things to find, let alone assign severities.

For this reason, many SaaS teams are turning to bug resolution platforms like Bugpilot for a little help. Bugpilot assists with bug severities by including all the information you'll need to assess the impact of bugs and prioritize resolution.

What is bug severity?

Bug severity measures the extent a bug or defect has on software development or functionality when used. The assigned severity level depends on how much it impacts user interaction with the software.

Examples of bug severity

These are the severity levels with examples of how bugs or defects are generally categorized.

Severity 1: Critical

A critical bug hinders the performance of essential functionality, preventing users from using the system. For example, Microsoft would probably feel quite nervous if all their users could not sign into their 365 accounts. Or if there were problems with the "reset password" feature, preventing users from resetting their passwords successfully.

In addition, there may not be a workaround available. All severity 1 (S1) bugs need to be addressed as a priority!

Severity 2: Major

A major bug will cause large areas of the system to fail and cause functionality to stop behaving as expected. For example, if the Microsoft 365 service stopped validating the user's credentials and allowed access when details were incorrect. This would be a serious security threat, classified as an S2, and should be fixed asap.

Severity 3: Minor

Minor bugs or defects have a small impact on the system functionality. In other words, it happens when the software exhibits unexpected behavior. For instance, a user may find that their selected text is changed to the wrong shade whenever they choose a particular font color in Word. While this could be an annoyance, it doesn’t significantly impact the user experience. It’s a bug that should be fixed, but it won’t take priority if there are more serious issues that already exist.

Severity 4: Low

S4s are usually cosmetic and should not prevent your users from doing something. Examples include overlapping text, misaligned page elements, or links pointing to the wrong page. Low bugs are typically parked and can be addressed in a future release.

How is bug severity determined?

First, identify how often the bug occurs. For instance, a minor bug can cause significant interference to the UX if the problem is seen frequently in the backend. With the bug replicated, you can decide its severity and how urgently it needs fixing. This is known as bug priority.

Bug priority

The priority is how quickly the bug needs to be resolved. The typical bug priority levels are:

Low: These bugs can be parked until later.

Medium: These can be fixed during a regular development and software testing sprint.

High: These need to be addressed ASAP! At this point, the software is not fit for purpose.

Although bug severity and priority are often confused and used interchangeably, they differ. Remember, the severity measures the impact on the user, while the priority is how soon the bug needs to be fixed. So not all S1s will be a priority. Here are some examples of how priorities work.

High-severity, high-priority

A critical severity and high-priority bug are when key functionality is affected, meaning users will face difficulty using your software.

Example: Cross-browser testing found when accessing Zoom from Chrome, joining and leaving meetings is successful. However, the "join meeting" feature has disappeared when signing in from a Microsoft Edge browser.

High-severity, low-priority

A critical severity and low-priority bug is when the problem is significant but can be fixed later, as it doesn’t impact many users.

Example: Cross-browser testing found all Zoom functionality works as expected in the Microsoft Edge browser. However, when accessed from some legacy browsers, meeting information is scrambled and misaligns page elements.

Low severity, high priority

A low-severity and high-priority bug is when the problem should be addressed immediately but has a low impact on the user.

Example: Cross-browser testing of the latest Zoom release found that some icons and buttons were misaligned and looked terrible. Although the functionality isn't affected, the bug needs to be addressed quickly before the release date as it affects the UX.

Low-severity, low-priority

A low-severity and low-priority bug is usually cosmetic, and it's not considered a real issue regarding functionality. Therefore, it doesn't need to be fixed straight away.

Example: Testing found Zoom has some font colors which are incorrect.

Why is bug severity important?

It indicates how serious the problem is. The bug severities and priorities are required as they highlight how the level at which users are impacted and how quickly problems should be looked at.

Prioritized resolution helps minimize high-severity bugs from reaching production. End users do not report bugs. If one of your new user's first experiences with your software is poor due to bugs, or they're unable to do something, they could stop using your product altogether.

It makes better use of your resources. Knowing which bugs can be looked at later frees up time to fix the bugs that are costing your business.

It's an easy method that everyone understands. Everyone on the team can understand bug and defect severities and priorities. This system eradicates misunderstandings and presumptions regarding the impact.

How to use Bugpilot for instant bug resolution

Bugpilot is an AI-powered bug resolution software. It helps save you money by speeding up the bug resolution process. Here's how Bugpilot helps SaaS teams to understand, prioritize, and ultimately speed up the fix time of user-facing bugs.

Understand the bug quicker

Get the bug information you'll need to understand, recreate, prioritize, and fix issues quicker. Bugpilot removes the need to chase users for screenshots and sometimes receive inaccurate and unclear information. The other automated troubleshooting details Bugpilot offers include standard bug reports, visual proof, and network requests.

In addition, integrations with Jira, Slack, Notion, and over 100 apps make collaboration and workflow processes easier.

Easier and detailed bug reporting

The 1-click bug reporting widget allows users to report problems with accurate information. It creates a thorough technical bug report, including bug description, session recording, and all the other techie details you'll need for an actionable bug ticket.

Your users will be able to make their report as detailed as possible by highlighting areas on the screen and including notes of what they were trying to do and what happened.

Find hidden bugs

Did you know that 96% of bugs go unreported by users?

Not that we rely on users to report bugs, but through their consistent use of the system, hidden bugs and defects are found. Users not reporting issues could be down to a whole host of reasons. Bugpilot encourages more users to raise problems by making it easier to submit tickets. You'll have a higher chance of fixing unknown problems before they become significant issues in production.

If a first-time user of your product has a poor user experience, they could be put off your software altogether. And if this happens frequently, it could dent your brand's credibility and bottom line. So having your users on board with flagging issues is a must.

Boost productivity

Bugpilot AI assistance helps to increase productivity by providing the following assistance for code fixes:

logical errors, stack traces, and source-map support

error descriptions and likely root cause

production-ready code fixes to add to your code

Ready to take your bug resolution to the next level?

Bug severity is the extent to which a bug or defect impacts software development or functionality. Bugs and defects are assigned severities and priorities. Priorities rank the urgency with which a bug should be fixed. Does it need to be fixed now, or can it be added to a future release? A critical bug renders the software unsuitable, while a minor inconvenience, like a cosmetic fault, may be raised as low severity.

Bugpilot understands the importance of getting bugs fixed quickly, and our bug resolution software helps you get a precise understanding of bugs and their impact on the user. Head to Bugpilot today to sign up and start your 14-day free trial.