Can you explain the differences between severity and priority?

How to Answer
Answer Example

This question is not directly related to the quality assurance process or practices but can be applied to any job which involves problem-solving. The question addresses your organizational and time management skills. Knowing the difference between severity and priority helps you determine which issues you will address and when you will address them. This is important to the interviewer because they want to ensure that you work well in an environment with minimal oversight.

"The terms severity and priority typically apply to time management. I use them to determine which problems I'm going to work on first. Severity defines how difficult a problem will be to resolve. Priority defines how important the issue is to the organization and the impact of fixing it. A good illustration of this is to create a diagram with four quadrants. On the Y-axis is priority and on the X-axis is severity. My focus is on the upper right quadrant, which contains high priority in high severity issues. I avoid the lower left quadrant in which both of these are low. After resolving high priority and high severity issues, I then address a high priority before resolving high severity."

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How to Answer: Can you explain the differences between severity and priority?

Advice and answer examples written specifically for a Quality Assurance job interview.

3. Can you explain the differences between severity and priority?

How to Answer

This question is not directly related to the quality assurance process or practices but can be applied to any job which involves problem-solving. The question addresses your organizational and time management skills. Knowing the difference between severity and priority helps you determine which issues you will address and when you will address them. This is important to the interviewer because they want to ensure that you work well in an environment with minimal oversight.

Written by William Swansen on September 6th, 2021

Answer Example

"The terms severity and priority typically apply to time management. I use them to determine which problems I'm going to work on first. Severity defines how difficult a problem will be to resolve. Priority defines how important the issue is to the organization and the impact of fixing it. A good illustration of this is to create a diagram with four quadrants. On the Y-axis is priority and on the X-axis is severity. My focus is on the upper right quadrant, which contains high priority in high severity issues. I avoid the lower left quadrant in which both of these are low. After resolving high priority and high severity issues, I then address a high priority before resolving high severity."

Written by William Swansen on September 6th, 2021

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