Željko Filipin's Blog on Software and Testing

I have just read a short article, Don’t Use Bug Counts to Measure Testers by Cem Kaner.

The last paragraph:

If you really need a simple number to use to rank your testers, use a random number generator. It is fairer than bug counting, it probably creates less political infighting, and it might be more accurate.

Brian Marick mentioned it at agile-testing@yahoogroups.com.

From time to time I have to forward our bug severity scale to a customer responsible for reporting bugs.

We use only the first five. I do not remember when I reported a bug with severity six or seven.

1. Showstopper – blocks development and/or testing work, production could not run
2. Critical – crashes, loss of data, major memory leaks
3. Major – major loss of function
4. Minor – minor loss of function; other problem where easy workaround exists
5. Trivial – cosmetic issue like typo, misaligned images, and similar
6. Fix if time – super-low priority
7. Don’t Fix

I have been recommending this articles from FogBugz Online Documentation to our customers (to improve their bug reporting skills):

The Basics of Bug Tracking
Top Ten Tips for Bug Tracking