Here’s a step-by-step process to help you navigate this debate effectively: 1. Define Criteria for Severity 2. Gather All Relevant Information 3. Facilitate Open Discussion 4. Use a Ranking System 5. Prioritize User Impact 6. Consider Context 7. Consensus Building 8. Document the Agreement 9. Follow Up 10. Encourage Continuous Learning

To reach a consensus on bug severity with your team, consider these steps: 1. Define Criteria: Establish clear criteria for bug severity levels (e.g., critical, major, minor) based on impact and urgency. 2. Open Discussion: Encourage open dialogue where each team member can present their perspective on the bug's impact. 3. Use Data: Support arguments with data, such as user reports, logs, and performance metrics. 4. Prioritize User Impact: Focus on how the bug affects the user experience and business goals. 5. Facilitate Mediation: If disagreements persist, involve a neutral party to mediate and help reach a decision. 6. Document Decisions: Record the agreed severity level and rationale for future reference.

Reaching a consensus on bug severity with your team requires a clear, structured approach. we can Define S well-defined severity levels (e.g., Critical, High, Medium, Low) and what qualifies for each level and priority which often depends on factors like business needs and deadlines, but avoid conflating this with severity. Establish a Shared Understanding of the System, Leverage Data and Evidence like as user complaints, crash logs, analytics, or customer feedback to determine how widespread or severe the bug is. Evidence-based discussions often help align the team.If the team can’t reach a consensus, identify a decision-maker (such as a QA lead, product manager, or tech lead) to make the final call after considering all perspectives.

1. List down the Impact areas of the bug, Financial, Legal, Operational, Reporting, etc. 2. List down the impacted users along with number of users like Business, Financial users and other users. 3. List down the third party systems that it might affect. 4. Understand if we have a viable workaround? 5. Perform initial triage, to understand depth of the issue. By listing and discussing above points, we can define the severity of the issue.

The following process always helps in reaching a consensus Start off by identifying the different levels of severity and identifying if our bug falls in which category to ensure that everyone is on the same page. Do not discourage anyone from giving their opinion always let everyone present their understanding of the situation and their way of resolution. Analyse all the data and deliberate which approach might be the best approach This provides diverse perspectives to the same problem which is extremely helpful in resolution. Always document the entire process for future reference.

I think it’s essential to have a clear, unbiased set of criteria for bug severity based on factors relevant to our field/domain. It’s important that the team is involved in defining and aligning these criteria, as this builds a shared understanding of what matters most to us. Some key factors in this criteria could be financial impact, client experience (like whether it’s causing frustration or reducing sales potential), client relationships, PR, and similar. Also, it’s important that the team feels comfortable discussing and even challenging the criteria. Sometimes, an exception may be needed, or the criteria might need updating as business needs change. Staying open to adjustments keeps our approach flexible and relevant.

To navigate differing opinions on bug severity, establish weighted criteria with clear definitions, such as user impact, frequency, and business risk. Assign scores to each criterion, multiply them by their respective weights, and calculate a total score for the bug. Use a predefined score-to-severity mapping to objectively determine the severity level. This data-driven approach ensures consistency, minimizes subjective debates, and aligns the team on prioritization.

We analyze the bug and it's effect on the solution and decide based on: 1. Requirements priority 2. Effect of the bug 3. Having a workaround solution to avoid it 4. Review of stakeholders' analysis and expectations.

Follow these strategies: - Define Severity vs. Priority: Clearly distinguish between bug severity (impact on functionality) and priority (urgency of fixing). - Establish Clear Criteria: Use a structured framework for assessing bugs to reduce ambiguity and guide discussions. - Encourage Open Communication: Foster an environment where team members feel safe to express their views and concerns. - Use Decision-Making Techniques: Implement brainstorming or multi-voting to collectively gather and prioritize ideas. - Test Assumptions: Validate opinions with data or user feedback to ground discussions in reality. - Document Decisions: Keep records of discussions and decisions to ensure transparency and prevent misunderstandings.

Between startups and big companies, the process that captures the essence of what bug management should be includes: 1. Define Severity Levels - Define what conditions match severity levels. 2. Document Reproducibility - What exactly substantiates the problem? Allow all team members to share their views within a set time period. 3. Prioritize Key Users - Focus on how bugs affect functionality, system, and different types of end-users. 4. Document Decisions - Record severity and rationale on outcomes for alignment on future assessments. 5. Team Leadership - If consensus isn’t reached, designate an SME/lead to decide after considering all inputs. Each company is different so you should adjust complexity to match your company needs.