Difference between Severity and Priority in Testing

Severity:
Severity is defined as the extent to which a particular defect can create an impact on the
software. Severity is a parameter to denote the implication and the impact of the defect
on the functionality of the software.
Priority:
Priority is defined as parameter that decides the order in which a defect should be fixed.
Defect having the higher priority should be fixed first.

Deciding Defect Severity:

High:
Software in unusable state, memory dump, failure to starts, OS freezes when application starts,
database corruption, abnormal termination of software, etc.

Medium:
Software in usable state, Functional issues, Performance issues, incorrect error messages, etc.

Low:
Spelling mistakes, Grammatical mistakes, GUI(software cosmetic flaw) issue, Change request.

CLASSIFICATION OF SEVERITY CAN VERY DEPENDING ON COMPANY RULES AND TOOLS USED

DEFECT SEVERITY LEVELS:

Quality Center:
LOW/MEDIUM/HIGH/VERY HIGH/URGENT

Bugzilla:
Enhancement/Trivial/Minor/Major/Normal/Critical/Blocker

Mantis:
Feature/Trivial/Text/Tweak/Minor/Major/Crash/Block

Deciding Defect Priority:

HIGH:
Immediate fix is required as testing activities are blocked.

MEDIUM:
Must fix before software is released.

LOW:
Would like to be fixed, even if not fixed, can be released.

Defect Report Details:

1.Defect ID
2.Date
3.Project name
4.Module name
5.Sub Module name
6.Phase
7.Type
8.Severity
9.Priority
10.Summary
11.Description
12.Status
13.Reported by
14.Assigned to /CC
 Few Defect Reporting Tools:
HP-QUALITY CENTER
IBM-Clear Quest
Bugzilla
Mantis
Manual-MS-Excel