I am proposing that the clerk should assign the severity.
You could have the programmers do the prioritisation, if they had the business understanding to do that. In that case, they're also the boss. The severity assigned by the clerk could still be a useful starting point.
You could have the programmers do the prioritisation, if they had the business understanding to do that. In that case, they're also the boss. The severity assigned by the clerk could still be a useful starting point.