after we build · part three · severity × impact
Severity × Impact — and the other four dimensions
Priority is derived from the combination of Severity and Impact. It is never set manually. Never argued about in triage. Never changed directly — change the severity or impact assessment instead, and let priority follow.
Priority is auto-calculated
| Severity ↓ / Impact → | Blocker | High | Medium | Low |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Critical | P0 | P1 | P2 | P3 |
| High | P1 | P1 | P2 | P3 |
| Medium | P2 | P2 | P2 | P3 |
| Low | P3 | P3 | P3 | P3 |
- P0 — stop all work, incident process, stakeholders notified within 30 minutes.
- P1 — fix same day, escalate if blocked.
- P2 — normal backlog priority, no escalation unless ageing past 2 cycles.
- P3 — backlog, fix when capacity allows, review quarterly.
The other four dimensions
Type · bug · regression · performance · security · visual — what kind of defect. If nothing is broken and someone wants different behaviour, it is a Story, not a bug.
Environment · production · staging · development — where it was found. Affects urgency (production bugs get more attention), not priority (the matrix decides priority).
Area · api · frontend · mobile · database · infra · auth · payments · ux — which part of the system. Multiple labels when boundaries are crossed.
Root cause · Required for high and critical severity, after the fix. The label that traces the defect to the level of the chain that produced it. See next page.
Six dimensions total. Every defect and every bug gets all six. The labels are not overhead — they are the data the portfolio view uses to diagnose where the chain is fragile.