Purpose

Defects by Severity is used to help the team understand the number of defects in the system remaining to be fixed. Grouping defects by severity helps the team prioritize their work.

Definition

Count: total number of open defects. An open defect is not resolved or closed.

Group by severity.

Analysis

A large number of open defects in high severity categories is cause for concern. The team should prioritize their work to address them and determine the cause of the quality issues so that corrective actions can be taken.

This metric is typically viewed as a drill-down report from the  Defect Backlog. It can be monitored at the project or program level.

Below is an example of a Defect by Severity report for a single project. Note the high number of major and critical defects.

The program-level example below shows Defects by Severity for two projects.

Collection and reporting tools

IBM® Rational® Quality Manager®, IBM® Rational® ClearQuest® and IBM® Rational® Team Concert® collect Defect data. IBM® Rational® Insight® reports on this metric.