QA/Bugzilla/Fields/Severity

This page is about the Severity (aka bug_severity) field in Bugzilla.

Getting Started
Below is a general description of each level of severity from most severe (Blocker) to least severe (Enhancement). These are meant to be general guidelines for QA individuals trying to triage bugs.

At the end of the section is a flowchart which provides an example of how one could potentially triage severity of bugs as they are moved from UNCONFIRMED to NEW or ASSIGNED. These are meant to be guidelines not strict standards, any suggestions to make the process better should be made through the QA mailing list where we can discuss potential changes.

Access Control
To ensure that bugs triaged by QA are being prioritized as consistently as possible, access to the Severity field is partially-restricted to admins and users in the 'Contributors' group who have learned our policies. Of the levels listed below, Accessible to all
 * yellow - Accessible to Contributors and above
 * green -

If you'd like to become a Contributor, it's easy. Just
 * 1) Read this page and familiarize yourself with our Severity structure
 * 2) Ask one of the Bugzilla admins in the QA IRC Channel or on the QA Mailing List to upgrade your Bugzilla account. We're happy to have you on board!

Severity Levels

 *  Critical 
 * crashes, loss of data, severe memory leak


 *  Major 
 * major loss of function


 *  Normal 
 * regular issue, some loss of functionality under specific circumstances


 *  Minor 
 * minor loss of function, or other problem where easy workaround is present


 *  Trivial 
 * cosmetic problem like misspelled words or misaligned text


 *  Enhancement 

Request for enhancement

Example Flowchart(s)
Feel free to amend this section with examples of how triaging severity can be done. There is no one right way but when it is being done the QA member should do everything in their power to be consistent. Also, try to comment when changing things so that other members and our users know your thought process.

Example