Bug Fixing Priority

Which of these is the most important one to fix first, and why?

a. The word "BlackBerry" is misspelled on the startup screen of the application.
b. The application always rejects a user's first attempt to launch the application; subsequent attempts are successful.
c. The application crashes and brings down the database server when it tries to add a record that contains an uncommon string, "123abc456xyz789".

Questions by oranger34

Editorial / Best Answer

vk1978  

  • Member Since Feb-2009 | Mar 25th, 2009


Priority will be given based on stage of life cycle,

1) Assume that application is middle stage (I mean to say build is 3rd one and still few more to come) and you are testing the application to accept it (Smoke/sanity Testing) for further testing I would like to give the preference as B, A, C Why I am giving last preference to C is when I am giving uncommon string then the application is getting crash, but as of now we have alternative and that is positive value, so with positive value we can work with the application Next why A is given second preference “black berry” Its company Name, not a simple title of application

And lastly why I am giving first preference to BI am not able to launch the application in first attempt then it is a major issue, while accepting the build (smoke/sanity testing) if you are not able to launch then definitely we will reject the build.

2) Assume application is completed and ready for use, then also I will give B, A, C Let me tell you in general way, Suppose you are a customer and interested to purchase Blackberry mobile and if it is not launching in first attempt, do you purchase that piece, no one will purchase, and coming second one company Label, Company goodwill is linked to it, and with this mistakes goodwill will be degraded so second preference, and coming to last one we have an alternative and that is we can give positive values with which that particular functionality will work Please correct me if I am wrong.

Showing Answers 1 - 21 of 21 Answers

The third bug that is pulling down the database server is the most important to fix, the second bug that the application does not start in first go should be fixed next. Then the bug regarding the spellings should be fixed.

The bug that is pulling down the server, is most important because server is also being used for other transactions of the same application. The server is being used to for other applications as well. Pulling down of the server means deadlocking of so many applications.  Even though Blackberry is mis-spelled, it is still understandable. However, if the application is not logging in on first attempt, the application is causing waste of effort on every time of logging leading to loss of time everytime the application is logged in for further testing.

goal1860

  • Mar 22nd, 2009
 

The third sceanario rarely happens, so it should be lower priority though it is estimated as higher severity.
The second defect could annoy the end users severely, while the first one maybe obvious and impact user experience. My personal opinion is c>b>a

Priority will be given based on stage of life cycle,


1) Assume that application is middle stage (I mean to say build is 3rd one
and still few more to come) and you are testing the application to accept it
(Smoke/sanity Testing) for further testing I would like to give the preference
as B, A, C Why I am giving last preference to C is when I am giving uncommon
string then the application is getting crash, but as of now we have alternative
and that is positive value, so with positive value we can work with the
application Next why A is given second preference “black berry” Its company
Name, not a simple title of application


And lastly why I am giving first preference to BI am not able to launch the
application in first attempt then it is a major issue, while accepting the build
(smoke/sanity testing) if you are not able to launch then definitely we will
reject the build.


2) Assume application is completed and ready for use, then also I will give
B, A, C Let me tell you in general way, Suppose you are a customer and
interested to purchase Blackberry mobile and if it is not launching in first
attempt, do you purchase that piece, no one will purchase, and coming second one
company Label, Company goodwill is linked to it, and with this mistakes goodwill
will be degraded so second preference, and coming to last one we have an
alternative and that is we can give positive values with which that particular
functionality will work Please correct me if I am wrong.

The following Order should be fixed first
C
B
A


First Priortize to Functional Bugs B, it shows the Database error on adding a Record. This is a common functions that to used in the Application. So this should be fix first.

Second Priortize to Installation A, No customers will not be adjust on launching errors in the application, so it should be fix next.

Last Priortize to the Missspelled bugs C. Products are identifies through by the name. so it should be next.

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goksn

  • Jun 3rd, 2009
 

My definitions would be

A - High priority low severity bug
B- High priority High severity bug
C-Low priority High severity bug

So, the order of bug fixing should be

1.B
2.A
3.C

If possible, we can ask to fix B & A at the same time, as the issue 'A' will take less time to fix.

shakilag

  • Jun 24th, 2009
 

Defect priority is how much impact the defect will impose on business.

According to me the order is:
B: No user loves being nagged to enter the same information N times that too before getting authenticated to an application. So this stands to be at priority 1.

A: If the word is misspelt on the start up screen itself then the business reputation will be questionable. Believe me clients make major issue of such cosmetic issues. This ranks at 2 compared to B.

C: The application crashes on entering a rare/uncommon entry. This is a high severity issue but low on priority. This fix can be deferred.


zaara

  • Jul 13th, 2009
 

 I think that first of all issue B needs to be fixed as it does not allow success login in first attempt.

Issue A is second priority as application name is incorrect and this will be majorly noticed by its users.

Issue C is third priority as in this Database fails only when a user enters unusual string that is hardly to be used.

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teja210

  • Jul 18th, 2009
 

First C needs to be fixed then B and last A.

C is critical and blocking issues, it will block large number of test cases too and has high impact on the business, so this needs to be fixed very urgently

B is High priority bug and also needs to be fixed immediately

A is medium priority bug and needs to be fixed on need based.

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The bugs need to be prioritized based on the test stage. Based on user experience, Bug B needs to be fixed first then bug A and lastly bug C. I prioritized Bug C as the least priority one since it is a rare scenario where the user will a record like "123abc456xyz789" for fields like "Name" or "Address". However, if the context record is something llike a "License key" or "Password" for example, then Bug C will need to be fixed with the highest priority since it is a highly likely scenario that the user will enter uncommon strings in these fields.

C is the right answer

a. The word "BlackBerry" is misspelled on the startup screen of the application.
Wrong : As its a cosmatic bug and it doesnt affect the functionality in anyways.

b. The application always rejects a user's first attempt to launch the application; subsequent attempts are successful.
Wrong : As the user is still able to login in second attemps.

c. The application crashes and brings down the database server when it tries to add a record that contains an uncommon string, "123abc456xyz789".
Right : This affects other users hence even though its a trival case but the severity is much higher.

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I would prefer in following order:


B
A
C


Since, the bug "B" is a show stopper which prevents the user from entering
into the application which is the first step like when a user intends to signup
for new yahoo which if fails tempts the user to shift his identity to gmail or
hotmail etc. so that B should be fixed first.


Then A, because in startup screen if has typographical errors, it makes user
feel why not the web site be maintained without silly errors and it creates bad
impression and may lower brand value.


Finally C, since if user input wrongly lets the server down.

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luk_x

  • Nov 5th, 2009
 

Interesting answers, but my priorities would be ACB.

Reason being you simply can't ship a product whose company/product name is incorrect. Imagine going to an interview and you can't even spell your name correctly in the application form.

C because the issue affects not only 1 application but the whole database affecting all users, even though the string entered might be uncommon.

B because,there is a way out. It would show poorly of the product but the application can be successfully started on the second attempt.

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The answer is C.

Reasons:

When we check for bug priority we have to consider the following:
The impact on Testing, i.e., whether it is a show-stopper for testing to proceed 
The effort involved in retesting because of the bug.
The effort involved in fixing the bug.

Issue A -> Easy to fix and not much effort involved in Testing
Issue B-> Effort not very high in Testing, also there is a workaround. The User can always login on second attempt.
Issue C: May have a DB impact, fix may be complicated, no workaround for this, and testing re-effort is very high.

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Question 1: "Exactly which application on the Blackberry are we talking about?"  Priority and Severity levels differ between applications that are often used by customers and those that are rarely used by customers. 

Question 2: "Is the application a core functionality that others depend upon?"  If so, then Priority and Severity levels will become greater as its impact on other processes becomes more widespread and severe. 

Nevertheless, without this information, I would assign Priority/Severity levels on these defects as follows:

Defect A:  Medium Priority / Low Severity
Reasoning:  This defect is Medium Priority because it is a branding issue that marketing cares strongly about and it must therefore be fixed before product release.  This defect is Low Severity because it has little negative impact on the customer. 

Defect B:  High Priority / Medium Severity
Reasoning: This defect is High Priority because users may abandon future attempts to launch the application after the initial failure.  It also establishes a negative first impression and users may question the reliability of the entire product based on this first impression.  This defect is Medium Severity because the behavior is an annoyance to users.

Defect C:  High Priority / High Severity
Reasoning: This defect is High Priority because it crashes the application and brings down the server when it attempts to add a record.  It doesn't matter that this record is an uncommon string.  The ramifications are great enough to warrant an immediate fix.  This defect is High Severity because bringing down the database will halt all transactions thereafter. The application will be of no use to customers without a functioning database.

gsrmohan

  • Feb 22nd, 2011
 

The Second one has the highest priority because it is effecting end user .

Then comes the first one.

The third one although having "High Severity" but it is having less probability.

So it has the least priority.

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nnatr1

  • Mar 7th, 2011
 

Bugs has been fixed based upon their Severity and Priority.
Severity can be classified as 1. Critical 2.Functional and 3.Cosmetic
Priority can be 1.High 2.Medium and 3.Low

If the bug is Sev1P1 then it should get fixed immediately. ex: System crash bugs are with Sev1 and priority1.

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mithr17

  • Nov 1st, 2011
 

I agree with everyone who said 2nd bug must be fixed. If left unfixed, it is not only bound to annoy end users, it will first annoy QA, client, BA etc. who all try to access the application.

A branding related bug always has higher priority over others. when blackberry is written in a specific font, text size and spelling, users recognize the product and popular features behind it i.e. BBM (blackberry messenger), the phone itself etc. When the branding is incorrect, users may think a new company that has logo similar to blackberry has emerged and this may lead to loss of sales and revenue.

I agree that the 3rd one has high severity but low priority because accounts can be added in all the other scenarios except in the specific string case. When there are other means and ways to accomplish a task, the bug almost always has lower priority.

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Reddy

  • Nov 29th, 2015
 

I hope that the following ans is helpful...

1) In these scenarios first we have to fix B, why because with out lancing of the application we cant do anything.

2) Secondly we have to fix A. why because miss spelled in Title of application is a High priority and low severity defect.

3) Finally we have to fix C... application crashes because of uncommon String. Suppose we give common string its will accept.

(Till the application crashes even though we tried to store common string we have to fix that First).

Thank you.

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Priyank

  • Jun 30th, 2016
 

Bug is fixed according to its priority i.e
1) Very High: Immediate fix needed, block further testing.
2) High: Must get fixed before the product is released.
3) Medium: Should fix if time permits.
4) Low: Would like to fix but can be released as it is.

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