Registration Number: FA20-BCS-066 & 056

Submitted To: Ma’am Sadia Bano

Submitted By: Abu Zar & Zayn Siyal
Date: 6-June-2021
Report Name: Notable Software System Failures
What are the software failures?
Software failures can be caused by bugs, ambiguities, oversights, or misinterpretation of the
specification that the programme is expected to meet, carelessness or incompetence in code
creation, insufficient testing, incorrect or unanticipated software usage, or other unforeseen
issues.
The software failure can be classified as:
▪ Failure that can be recovered: The system can be recovered without the assistance of an
operator.
▪ Unrecoverable failure: The system can only be recovered with the assistance of the
operator.
▪ Failure that does not damage the system state or data is known as non-corruption
failure.
▪ Corrupting failure: It causes data or system state to be corrupted.
▪ Transient failure: These problems only happen when certain inputs are used.
1: Software Reliability:
• A software component fails due to bugs.
• If the basic act of putting software modules in place isn't enough, we might just have to
find a close match for "manufacturing" in software to the real manufacturing process.
• As a result, after the software is transferred to the storage and started running, the
quality of the software will not alter.
• Software flaws are design flaws that are difficult to see, identify, detect, and remedy.
2: Hardware Reliability:
• Physical failures are the most common type of hardware problem.
• Wear and tear are the most common causes of hardware failure.
• Design flaws can occur in hardware as well, but physical flaws are more common.

Why Software Fails?

Because a product failure had rendered the distribution centre obsolete in some way,
merchandise heading for the warehouse was redirected to another place, while inventory in the
distribution facility was grieved. The staff at the "disappeared" warehouse fell silent as the
organization faced financial issues and had been covering different distribution hubs to reserve
funds. When the product's technical flaw was ultimately revealed, the merchandise in the
warehouse was auctioned off, and senior management instructed the staff not to speak about
the incident.
A typical cell phone has 2 million lines of programming code; estimates that by then, each of its
vehicles would have 100 million lines of code.

For what reason do projects flop so regularly?

Some factors are given as;
• Unrealistic or ill-defined project objectives
 • Estimates of required resources that are inaccurate
• System needs that are poorly specified
• The status of the project was not properly reported.
• Unmanaged dangers.
• shoddy development techniques
• Inadequate project management
• Politics of interest groups
• Business pressures.
Each statistic interacts with the others in perplexing ways, amplifying project risks and
challenges and increasing the likelihood of failure. Consider a simple programming assignment.
A purchasing system that automates the ordering, charging, and transportation of parts,
allowing a salesperson to enter a client's structure, have it automatically checked against pricing
and agreement requirements, and then plan to have the parts and receipt shipped to the client
from the stockroom. Assume that while composing the primary cycle for deals, the software
engineers approach each request as if it were placed in the business's primary region, despite
the fact that the firm has branches in a few states and countries.

Common Software Failure Causes

Because they don't achieve all of their requirements, most programming projects fail completely
or partially. The expense, schedule, quality, and needs goals are examples of these qualities.
According to various surveys, programming initiatives fail anywhere from half to eighty percent
of the times
Software failures can be caused by a number of factors, but the following are the
most common:
• Changing needs
• Lack of user interaction
• Unrealistic or unarticulated project aims
• Estimates of required resources that are inaccurate
• Customers, developers, and users do not communicate well.
• Using immat owing to a scarcity of resources
• urea technology that is unmanaged
• A lack of ability to deal with the project's complexity
Software Acquisition Worst Practices:
• Have the government force technological solutions or use timetable compression to
justify new technology on a time-sensitive project.
• Specify implementation technology in the Request for Proposal (RFP)
• Expect more than a 10% schedule slip to be restored without sacrificing the capabilities
provided.
• Carry out critical system engineering tasks without the help of a software expert
• Believe that formal reviews by themselves will offer a true picture of the project.
• The productivity of a formal review will be directly related to the number of attendances
over five.

Examples of Software Development Failures:

➢ Medicine infusion pumps recalled for deadly flaw:
Perfusion is a medical device company that has had a number of emergencies recalls in recent
years. Perfusion's Alar is Pump was recalled in 2015 because to the pump, which was designed
to provide medicine and fluids to hospital patients autonomously, was delayed due to a software
fault. Four days later, Perfusion filed a Class I recall for a separate line of ventilators, citing a
safety problem.
➢ Software glitch in F-35 fighter planes causes target detection problems:
The plane developers discovered a software flaw that allows the planes to detect targets wrongly
when flying in formation. The software is purportedly unable to determine whether there is only
one or numerous targets because each plane in the formation detects a target from different
angles.
➢ Frenchman sues uber over a software bug:
Because of a flaw in the Uber app, a man's affair with his wife was disclosed, culminating in a
divorce and a lawsuit against Uber. Due to a glitch, Uber alerts are sent to a device even if you
have logged out of your account on that device. The "cheating Frenchman" was found after his
wife received indications that he had used her phone to call an Uber.
➢ Solar City Corp is undervalued by $400 million in acquisition due to a
software fault:
Solar City Corporation enlisted the services of an investment bank to assist in the sale of the
firm to Tesla Motors Inc. However, the investment company Lazard Ltd. realized that it had
undervalued Solar City Corp by $400 million after the $2.6 billion deal was concluded.

Reasons:
1. Miscalculated Time and Budget Frames:
Customers are continually concerned that their promises will be fulfilled on time, if not ahead
of schedule, and at a low cost. Most of the time, this customer perspective leads designers to
agree to a much shorter or ridiculously short amount of time for the company's transfer at
lowered charges. As a result, the developers will be unable to broadcast the company on time.
2. No End-user Involvement:
If the client's perspective is not taken into account when promoting an IT project, it will
undoubtedly cause discomfort. As a result, the failure to identify and connect with the
appropriate customers to participate in the product development process is extremely
disappointing.
3. Lack of Periodic Assessment:
Inadequate assessments result from a lack of client-driven and developer-mandated
assessments, as well as a failure to strategically define milestone points, resulting in irreversible
or catastrophic failures.
4. Lack of Communication:
Another important point of view is the inability to create effective communication channels and
a participative climate. As a result, the thoughts or cycle flows become out of control, resulting
in a lack of reviews and collaborations between the dynamic company's advertising and
engineers. Standard assumptions can sometimes lead to misunderstandings, as the concepts
can differ, resulting in disappointment in business programming.

5. Lack of Quality Testing:

In many activities, the relevance of coding is overshadowed by the necessity of tests. To truly
talk about testing, you must have the utmost honesty and be a part of the complete
programming development life cycle. Testing disappointments are exacerbated by simple
testing and testing under non-constant situations. The most adventurous companies put their
products to the test in real-world scenarios.
Interesting Cases of Software Failures and
Consequences:
Case #1: St. Mary’s Mercy Hospital:
Imagine checking your mailbox one morning to find a letter from your hospital
notifying you that you had died. 8500 people who got care at St. Mary's Mercy Hospital between
October 25 and December 11 experienced just that. So, where did it all go wrong? It found out
that the hospital's patient-management software system had just been updated. The system,
however, accidentally issued a number of 20 (which means "expired") instead of 01, indicating
that the patient had been released, due to a software mapping error. However, that's not all.
Patients, insurance companies, and the local Social Security office were all given the erroneous
information.
Case #2: National Health Service:
I'm not sure which is worse: not taking your medications at all or taking the wrong
ones. In any case, a software flaw resulted in the erroneous prescription or advice being supplied
to at least 300,000 cardiac patients. So, what went wrong? The healthcare computer system One
was uncovered in 2016 to have a flaw that has been miscalculating patients' risk of heart attack
since 2009. Several people have had heart attacks or strokes as a result of being told they were
low-risk, while others have suffered from the adverse effects of taking unnecessary medicine.
Case #3: Toyota:
Many Toyota drivers complained in the mid-2000s that their car would accelerate
without them pressing the accelerator pedal. After a succession of mishaps and investigations,
investigators discovered that the unintentional acceleration was caused by software faults.
Memory corruption, incorrect memory handling, disabled safety measures, single-point-of-
failure systems, and tens of thousands of global variables were among the issues with the
software installed in Toyota vehicles in this case. Toyota recalled millions of vehicles, and the
company's stock price dropped 20% a month after the problem was discovered.

Conclusion:
In this essay, we looked at numerous examples of software failure and its consequences. These
instances demonstrate that our society is heavily reliant on software, and that when it fails, it
may cause more than just financial issues. As long as people are engaged in the development
process, software systems will have defects and be prone to failure. It's to make sure that the
software we're pushing can genuinely help rather than hurt its consumers.
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