Severity vs priority — how do you actually decide in practice?

Question

I understand the textbook definition: severity is technical impact, priority is business urgency. Where I struggle is applying it under pressure.

Concrete example: a typo in the footer copyright year. Severity is obviously trivial. But marketing says it must ship today because of an audit. Does that make it P1?

How do you defend your rating when a stakeholder disagrees?

Sofia Marquez · Accepted Answer

Yes — that is a trivial severity, P1 priority bug, and that combination is completely legitimate. The two axes are independent on purpose, precisely so you can express "small problem, must fix now". The trick when defending a rating is to stop arguing about the label and state the two facts separately: Severity — what breaks, and for whom. Owned by QA, because it is an observation. Priority — when we fix it relative to everything else. Owned by the product owner, because it is a business…

Severity vs priority — how do you actually decide in practice?

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