Defect classification
What is defect in Software Testing?
In any software testing, a defect is a
deviation from the observed versus expected
behaviour of a software application. It’s
usually called a bug.
Defects are faults, errors, or flaws of software
that make it produce incorrect, unexpected,
or unintended results and thus impact its
functionality, performance, security, or
usability.
These can pop up at several stages of the
software development lifecycle, like
requirements gathering, design, coding, or
testing.
Effective identification and management of
defects are important in ensuring that the
software product is of good quality, reliable,
and successful in general since unresolved
defects may result in system crashes,
security vulnerabilities, and bad user
experience.
Types of Defects
Awareness of the various kinds of defects helps
with proper reporting and processing. The
following are the typical kinds of defects that are
encountered during software testing:
1. Functional Defects
Functional defects are those that concern the
failure of software to behave per the functional
specifications or requirements. These types of
defects directly affect the core functionality of an
application.
Example: A payment gateway is unable to
process some transactions even though all
required fields have been correctly filled.
2. Performance Defects
Performance defects describe the performance
of software under particular conditions. It could
be related to load, stress, or volume. These are
defects that create problems, such as slow
response times or crashing under heavy loads.
Example: A website is slow to load if many
users hit it all at the same time.
3. Usability Defects
Usability defects deal with the user experience
and concern issues of ease of use, navigability,
and intuitiveness. This class of defects can make
users frustrated, hence creating a bad user
experience.
Example: A button not being able to be
clicked or a form field not clearly labeled.
4. Security Defects
Security defects are vulnerabilities in the
software that may be exploited to result in
unauthorized access, data, or operations
disruption by the attack. These are critical
defects that need urgent action.
Example: A web application is vulnerable
to SQL injection attacks because of poor
input validation.
5. Compatibility Defects
Compatibility defects: These are defects that
allow software to run and execute all its functions
but not across all environments, such as on
different browsers, operating systems, or
devices. This defect affects the accessibility and
usability of the software.
Example: The mobile app crashes on a
specific version of an operating system.
Examples of Defects:
An application crashes if a user provides
certain data.
A log-in function is unable to take valid
credentials
A webpage is not getting loaded properly in a
few web browsers.
Classification of Defects in Software
Testing
In the ever-evolving world of software
development life cycle, understanding the
classification of defects in software testing is
paramount. In the realm of software
development, defects play a pivotal role.
Defects, synonymous with bugs, represent
imperfections within a software application.
When software behaves unpredictably, we
identify it as a defect.
Such anomalies arise when the software’s
output deviates from its intended output
The testers of software testing company aim
to identify these defects. Their primary goal
is to ensure software quality and reliability.
Every software application undergoes
rigorous testing before reaching end-users.
Standard classification of Defect
Severity
Critical: It affects critical functionality &
cannot able to test the application further.
Testing cannot be started with any
workaround as well.
Major: Major functionality not working but
able to test application. It has a workaround
but not obvious.
Minor: Bug in Functionality but in the
submodule or one under the other module.
The minor feature in the module but has
workaround from other modules easily.
Trivial: Issues in the location of the object or
the look and feel issue.
Conclusion
As we mentioned before, quality control
professionals
typically classify quality defects into three
main categories: minor, major, and critical.
The nature and severity of
a defect determine which of the three
categories it belongs to.
Reference
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/what-is-
defect-in-software-testing/
https://codedec.com/tutorials/classification-
of-defects-in-software-testing/
https://www.javatpoint.com/bug-vs-defect-vs-
error-vs-fault-vs-failure
https://www.baeldung.com/cs/software-
testing-defect-bug-error-and-failure
Thank you
