Understand the business first
You can't judge how serious a bug is without knowing what matters to the business. This is the skill that turns a tester into a trusted one.
5 steps · 4 minNot all bugs are equal
A typo in the footer and a broken checkout are both 'bugs' — but one costs nothing and the other costs sales. Severity isn't about how the bug looks; it's about what it does to the business and its users.
You find two bugs on an online store. Which deserves attention first?
Three questions for severity
To rank any bug, ask: How many users hit it? How badly are they blocked? And does it touch money, trust, or safety? A 'yes' to that last one almost always makes it urgent.
A rare cosmetic glitch and a common checkout failure are worlds apart — even if both are 'bugs.'
A bug only happens for users paying in a specific foreign currency — about 8% of revenue. How should you treat it?
Ask what a feature is for
Before testing anything, ask: what does this feature earn or protect? Once you know that, you know where the dangerous bugs are — and you can argue for them in language the business actually cares about.
Lesson complete.
You just practiced the real work of QA — predicting failure, probing the edges, and reporting clearly. That instinct is the foundation everything else builds on.