What is the difference between a critical and a major bug in software testing?

Question

I want to clarify my definition of a critical and a major bug in software testing According to my understanding a critical bug is one which does not have a work around solution and a major bug is one which does. (Please correct me if i am wrong) But HOW does a tester determine whether or not a bug will have a work around solution or not??

Answer 1

A critical defect is show stopper which means the functionality cannot be delivered unless that defect is cleared. And a major defect is a major flaw in functionality but it still can be released.

As a simple example, for an application maintaining list of people. If the user is not able to add/update details of a person in the list, it is a critical defect. But if the user is not able to delete the information of a person it is a major defect.

Hope this helps..

Answer 2

Testers don't. They categorize bugs in terms of empirical user experience. A test engineer will write up a bug as critical if it makes the system undeliverable, eg 'system consistently crashes after 255 transactions have been made, corrupting the tables'.

Typically, a project management review team will then decide on what impact the bug will have and what action is required, so setting a priority for action. A critical bug may require no action at all, eg "Yeah - I totally derped. It's already fixed in the source and will be gone in the next build. It's on now and will be done by the time the meeting is over".

Answer 3

I use the terminology

blocker - the functionality does not work in main area (businness cannot be provided)

critical - the functionality does not work in main area but there is a work around

major - the functionality does not work but not in main area (business can be provided)

minor - there are user interface problems or functional but in area which is used rarely

trivial - misspellings

Testers do not decided about solutions but can say their opinion.