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Severity

As explained in Think Like a CTO

Severity is the degree of harmful impact or consequence associated with an issue or finding.

Severity is the degree of harmful impact or consequence associated with an issue or finding. Rating it helps determine how much effort to invest in resolving the problem, especially when some problems are rare, temporary, or easier to tolerate. section 7.2.3 section 14.5.3

Assess severity by asking:

  • What would happen if the problem or failure occurred? section 7.2.3 section 14.5.3
  • Would the impact threaten operations, require days to restore service, or demand investment in business continuity? section 14.5.3
  • Is the issue recurring, client-specific, seasonal, or associated with the same people? section 7.2.3
  • Can the organization reasonably tolerate the problem because it is short term or rare? section 7.2.3

A high-severity operational finding

A database failure, including power loss, could stop the company from functioning and take days to restore. The finding therefore belongs near the top of a consequence-ordered summary and may justify investment in an acceptable business-continuity solution. section 14.5.3

How Think Like a CTO covers it

How deep it goes
Explains consequence-based prioritization and diagnostic questions, but stops short of defining a formal scoring scale or severity matrix.
Examples
Uses recurring failures, client-specific issues, seasonal downtime, repeated actors, and database failure with power loss.
What it assumes
Assumes familiarity with organizational problems, failures, due diligence, and operational consequences.
What you can do after
Evaluate findings by consequence and choose proportionate corrective effort or business-continuity investment.
How it connects
Connects severity with failure analysis, process improvement, due diligence, business continuity, and organizational learning.
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