Say it like this
- What is the severity of this issue?
- We need to address the high severity bugs first.
- This ticket has critical severity.
Use it at work
Bug reports
- What's the severity of this bug?
- This is high severity. Users lose data.
Incidents
- Let's lower the severity. Only one region is affected.
- Severity determines who gets paged.
Planning
- Fix all high-severity bugs before release.
- Low-severity issues can wait.
Don't say this
Severity is a noun, not a verb. You cannot 'severity' something.
Don't mix it up
| Term | What it is | Who writes or uses it | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| severity | How bad the impact is | QA, ops | Bugs, incidents |
| priority | How soon to fix it | Product | Planning |
Practice
Try it
4 quick exercises
1. We assigned _______ to the authentication bug because it prevents all users from logging in.
2. Which sentence uses 'severity' incorrectly?
3. Your team finds a major bug in production. How do you say it?
4. Rewrite this using 'severity': 'This problem is really bad and we need to fix it today.'
Say it out loud
Phrase 1 of 3
"What is the severity of this issue?"
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More about severity
Real examples(3)
- in a standup
"The authentication bug we found yesterday has Critical severity, so we're halting all other work to fix it."
- in a code review
"This memory leak could impact production, so I would rate its severity as High."
- in a team meeting
"We have three Medium severity items and one Low severity item remaining in the sprint."
More mistakes(2)
Handle with care. Severity is a noun describing the degree of seriousness, not a verb. Do not use it as 'to severity' or confuse it with 'serious' (adjective).
- ✕The severity is very serious.✓The severity is Critical or The issue is very serious.
Severity already indicates seriousness, so using 'serious' together is redundant.
- ✕This bug has low priority but high severity.✓This bug has low priority but high severity. (This is actually correct)
This is a valid and common statement. Priority and severity are different dimensions.
Other forms(2)
- severity noun
"The severity of the outage requires immediate action."
- severities noun (plural)
"Different severities require different response times."
Often used with(5)
- severity level · The classified rank of a problem, as in Critical, High, Medium, or Low severity level.
- high severity · Used to describe urgent, impactful problems that need prompt attention.
- critical severity · Used for the most serious issues that block core functionality or affect production.
- assign severity · The act of categorizing or ranking a problem when it is first reported.
- severity rating · A numerical or categorical score indicating the seriousness of an issue.
Similar words(3)
- impact · Impact describes the consequence of a bug, while severity describes how serious it is.
- criticality · Criticality and severity are very similar; both describe how serious an issue is.
- seriousness · Seriousness is more general and informal; severity is the technical term used in ticketing systems.
Opposites(2)
- triviality
- insignificance
Questions(5)
- What does severity mean in software engineering?
- Severity is a classification level that describes how serious or critical a bug, issue, or problem is. It indicates the degree of impact on system functionality and users. Common severity levels are Critical, High, Medium, and Low.
- How is severity different from priority?
- Severity measures the seriousness or impact of an issue (how bad it is), while priority measures when it should be fixed relative to other work. An issue can have high severity but low priority (we know it is serious but we will fix it later), or low severity but high priority (it is not critical but we want to fix it soon).
- What are typical severity levels?
- Most tech companies use four severity levels: Critical (system is down or core functionality is broken), High (significant functionality is impaired), Medium (minor functionality is affected), and Low (cosmetic issues or workarounds exist).
- How do you use severity in a sentence at work?
- Use it as a noun: The severity of this bug is High and it needs to be fixed before release. Or: What severity level should we assign to this issue? Never use it as a verb (do not say to severity something).
- Is severity formal or informal?
- Severity is neutral and professional. It is standard terminology in all tech companies and is equally appropriate in standups, emails, documentation, and formal incident reports.
