Topic: Diff b/w Showstopper and Critical and High

Message

Shouldn't the definition be provided by the testing or QA organization?
There are definitions that are similar across industries and in testing
communities but bottom line, it depends on the maturity of your
organization. Each of us can provide you what we use in our day to day
work but you should define these and include in your test plan/strategy
and get buy in from your testing groups that it is clearly understood.
Here is what we use: 
•
Critical- Testing of a major function has stopped or the defect has
cause other processes previously working to stop functioning blocking
testing from continuing. 

•	System has crashed

•	No workaround for issue

•	Data will/could be corrupted 

•
High - Critical functionality does not function but it does not stop
testing activities from continuing. It also does not degrade system
responses or functionality of other processes. Workarounds can be
performed to move beyond the defect

• Medium- Cosmetic issues or
non-critical defects such as formatting of a screen, font size or
grammar may need to be corrected prior to implementation. Testing can
continue without any degradation in the system

• Low- Non
critical items that may function correctly but could be performed more
efficiently. This is usually a bucket for future enhancements. Move
something from one screen to another or change the tab order for a
screen

• Showstopper-Showstopper is not a severity level
assignment but rather a notification that a defect will stop the
implementation of the code/release if not fixed with a temporary or
long term solution; this should be identified as a when the defect is
opened and not upgraded later in the lifecycle. Medium and Low defects
should rarely be identified as showstoppers. Need to identify and
provide justification for why considered showstopper in the body of the
ticket 
•	Number of external customers impacted
•	Significance impact to business unit or business processing 
•	What happens if we were to go to production with the defect 

Author	Message
tanushree Senior Member Joined: 04Apr2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 2160	Topic: Diff b/w Showstopper and Critical and High Posted: 03Oct2007 at 12:14am
	Shouldn't the definition be provided by the testing or QA organization? There are definitions that are similar across industries and in testing communities but bottom line, it depends on the maturity of your organization. Each of us can provide you what we use in our day to day work but you should define these and include in your test plan/strategy and get buy in from your testing groups that it is clearly understood. Here is what we use: • Critical- Testing of a major function has stopped or the defect has cause other processes previously working to stop functioning blocking testing from continuing. • System has crashed • No workaround for issue • Data will/could be corrupted • High - Critical functionality does not function but it does not stop testing activities from continuing. It also does not degrade system responses or functionality of other processes. Workarounds can be performed to move beyond the defect • Medium- Cosmetic issues or non-critical defects such as formatting of a screen, font size or grammar may need to be corrected prior to implementation. Testing can continue without any degradation in the system • Low- Non critical items that may function correctly but could be performed more efficiently. This is usually a bucket for future enhancements. Move something from one screen to another or change the tab order for a screen • Showstopper-Showstopper is not a severity level assignment but rather a notification that a defect will stop the implementation of the code/release if not fixed with a temporary or long term solution; this should be identified as a when the defect is opened and not upgraded later in the lifecycle. Medium and Low defects should rarely be identified as showstoppers. Need to identify and provide justification for why considered showstopper in the body of the ticket • Number of external customers impacted • Significance impact to business unit or business processing • What happens if we were to go to production with the defect Post Resume: Click here to Upload your Resume & Apply for Jobs

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praveen.1781 Newbie Joined: 29Oct2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1	Posted: 30Oct2007 at 6:04am
	The terminology differs from organization to organization. The whole sole meaning of the terms 'Critical', 'Showstopper' serve the same purpose irrespective of the difference in their terminology. Critical or Showstopper define the effect of the bug on the application the Bugs that are ranked critical or showstopper are very severe and they crash the application. Without fixing whom the testing process cannot continue.\ The bugs with high priority effect the system but the application does not crash out where a certain part of the module will be effected very severely and if left out un fixed will result in the malfunction of the module.
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