Faculty of Graduate Studies

for Statistical Research

Cairo University

10 Examples of Software Development Failure

and 10 anther software

Name: Hayam Mostafa Ghoneem

IT702
Software has become so ubiquitous in our 21st century lives that we often take it for
granted. We assume that it’s always going to work when we need it. Or, perhaps even
more dangerously, we don’t fully understand the negative repercussions of an error,
issue, or failure.

10 Software Development Failures.

Here’s a look at some real life situations where software development failures caused
massive waves and lasting ripples:

1.Heathrow Airport Disruption

In February of this year, more than 100 flights in and out of London’s Heathrow airport
were cancelled, delayed, or otherwise disrupted after technical issues compromised the
departure boards and check-in systems. As a result passengers were left without the
critical information they needed about their flights. On top of that, there was limited
functionality for electronic tickets (which have become quite common in recent years).

While a Heathrow spokesperson issued a statement and said they couldn’t share any
more details about what caused the systems to be affected and/or which systems were
impacted, they did promise to continue closely monitoring their systems. (But I can
promise you, for all of the calm boilerplate statements they released to the public, there
was chaos and shouting behind the scenes.)
2.Deadly Flaw in Medical Infusion Pumps
The company CareFusion designs and manufacturers advanced medical equipment for
some of the top hospitals around the world. Unfortunately, they also have their fair
share of recalls. And some of them are more dire than others.

In 2015, the CareFusion Alaris Pump, which is designed to automatically deliver fluids
and medicine to hospital patients, had a software error that caused the pump to delay
infusion. Thankfully the issue was caught very early on, but the consequences could
have been dire – potentially leading to accidental overdosing.

But that’s not all. CareFusion’s week got a lot worse when just four days later they had
to issue a Class I recall for a separate line of ventilators. The issue? A software flaw that
could cause patients to suffocate.

3.F-35 Fighter Plane Glitch

A couple of years ago, a software glitch in an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jet was identified
to have a bug. The bug actually caused planes to incorrectly detect and lock in on the
wrong targets when flying in formation.
As the company explained, each of the planes flying in formation must detect a target
from varying angles. But the software was unable to differentiate between one target
and multiple targets. In essence, the F-35s were seeing double. (And that’s not
something you want when flying in formation at high speeds and high altitudes.)

4.Uber Software Bug Catches “Cheater”

Okay, let’s take a temporary break from the serious ones. Here’s one that’s pretty funny
(unless you’re the main character of the story, that is.)

In France, a bug within the Uber app actually revealed a man’s affair with another
woman to his wife. It ultimately led to a divorce and got Uber slapped with a $45
million lawsuit.

The bug, which causes Uber notifications to be pushed to a device even after you log
out of the account on a specific device, actually sent several notifications to the
Frenchman’s wife – clearly outlining his rendezvous to his mistress’ flat. The wife
allegedly received the notifications because her husband had once called an Uber from
her phone.

5.Software Bug Aids in Bank Heist

In 2016, a group of advanced hackers/thieves hijacked the Bangladesh Bank System
and successfully transferred out over $81 million in four different transactions. They
had another $870 million lined up, but a spelling error tipped off the bank and caused
these additional transfers to be canceled.
But here’s where it gets interesting.

According to a release by the Bangladesh Bank authorities, there’s a printer set up to

automatically print read-outs of all transactions made. But there just so happened to be a
glitch in the system (which could have been caused by the thieves, I supposed) that
interrupted this printing process. So it wasn’t until several delays later that the transfer
receipts were tracked down. This gave the thieves ample time to “get away” and cover
their tracks.

6.TSB Bank Outage Locks Clients Out

When you store your money in a bank, you expect to be able to access it whenever and
wherever you want. But, alas, technology doesn’t always afford this freedom. And
while you’ve probably experienced a minor glitch in online banking in the past, I bet
you’ve never had to go through one like this.
In April 2018, millions of TSB Bank customers were locked out of their accounts after a
“simple” upgrade to the software led to a massive banking outage. The system upgrade
was planned, but apparently not well enough.

Immediately after TSB turned on the new system, customers began experiencing issues
logging in. Others were shown details of other people’s accounts. There were also
reports of inaccurate credits and debts. Many customers were locked out of their
accounts for two weeks before regaining access.

7.Hospital Computer Failure

Also in 2018, Wales National Health Service (NHS) experienced a widespread
computer failure that led to issues accessing patient files. In many hospitals and
facilities, doctors were unable to see patient files. This meant they couldn’t access X-ray
results or bloodwork. It also led to a backlog in appointments, since patients couldn’t be
seen and the system didn’t allow for cancellations.

8.A $400 Million Software Glitch

To assist in the sale of the company to Tesla, SolarCity Corp retained an investment
bank. But it wasn’t until after the $2.6 billion agreement was signed that the bank,
Lazard Ltd., discovered they had actually undervalued their client by roughly $400
million. While the error was too late for the SolarCity shareholders, Tesla did make an
offer to provide some stock to make up for the difference in valuation.

9.Missile Strike False Alarm

You might remember this one, because it was pretty big news at the time. Back in 2018,
citizens of Hawaii were given a state-wide alarm to take immediate cover in the face of
an inbound ballistic missile strike. As you can imagine, people panicked and did
whatever they could to “protect” themselves. Unfortunately (or fortunately, I supposed)
it turned out to be a false alarm.

The biggest issue with the entire debacle was that it took more than half an hour for the
alert to be retracted. And while investigations would later show the problem to be the
result of human error, they did find some very troubling flaws in the Hawaii Emergency
Management Agency’s alert origination software.

10.Toyota Car Accidents

A few years back, Toyota drivers began reporting a troubling issue: Their cars were
accelerating without them actually touching the gas pedal. And after a few accidents,
which were carefully investigated, it was discovered that software errors in the system
were causing these dangerous issues.

According to reports, the software installed on these Toyota cars had a variety of issues
like memory corruption, disabling safety systems, incorrect memory handling, and
systems with single points of failure. Toyota eventually recalled millions of vehicles
and the company’s stock price would eventually drop by 20 percent in a matter of
weeks.

10 Business Software Examples 2022

There are several different types of business software out there that can help business
owners reduce admin overhead, improve efficiency, and increase profit margins.

From productivity suites to accounting software and recruitment tools, here are the best
business software examples you can use to take care of the business tasks that will help
you thrive.

Office Suite Software

1. Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 is an office suite software that offers great benefits including excellent
functionality, cloud storage, and you can use it on the go. Microsoft Office is not only
familiar, but it works in the cloud, meaning your documents are saved online and you
can use it on any device without losing your work.

Depending on the license you buy, you can get programs like Word, Excel, PowerPoint,
and Publisher, along with the Outlook email service and OneDrive for cloud storage.

The software is cost-efficient if you have five or fewer employees, but for large teams,
you can get the Business Premium license, which comes with SharePoint, Microsoft
Teams, and Microsoft Exchange.

Overall, Microsoft 365 delivers everything you need while remaining superior to its
rivals in terms of functionality. Plus, you’ll find other contractors and suppliers already
using it making it ideal for your business.

2. Google Workspace
Google Workspace, formerly Google Suite, is a collection of online office tools such as
document creation, chat, email, cloud storage, video meetings, calendars, and more.
With this office suite, you get secure, cloud-based and branded document
creation, collaboration, sharing, and storage.

Plus, you don’t have to pay for expensive software or worry about everyone having the
same device just to run the software.

Each tool in the software suite is by Google meaning you can seamlessly move from
one app to another.

You can use Gmail to create a branded email address and then use Calendars for team
scheduling, Docs, Slides, and Sheets for creating documents, presentations, or
spreadsheets. All these come with real-time collaboration.

Also included is Google Drive for storing documents in the cloud, Google Meet
forvideo meetings, and Google Chat for team messaging.

Besides app integration, Google Workspace allows you to connect third-party tools
including Trello, Zoom, Salesforce, DocuSign, and Asana among others with minimal
data access.

3. Zoho
This office software suite offers a wide range of software and apps for businesses.
These apps and tools cover everything from sales, helpdesk, IT, people, finance,
collaboration, and project management among other tasks.

In addition, the apps and tools integrate with each other, as well as with other business
software platforms. Thus, if you need to do something, most likely you’ll find software
to do it through Zoho.

4. Bitrix 24
Bitrix 24 is a full suite of powerful tools for business that you can use for collaboration,
project management, instant messaging, scheduling, document handling, employee
management, and more.

The software suite comes with a capable customer relationship management (CRM) tool
with detailed reports. The CRM also logs contacts and communications, leads assigned
to your sales teams, emails your team has sent out, call records, quotations, and invoices
issued.
You can conveniently access detailed reports to stay up to date with your business
activities through the mobile app.

Sales and Marketing

5. HubSpot Marketing Hub

HubSpot is a sales and marketing platform that offers a slew of tools and integrations to
help you improve conversions. Among the tools include sales and marketing, content
management, and social media advertising.

The platform does this by providing options for content hosting, split testing, and
communications within your team and with customers. You also get targets and goals
you can track using its analytics software.

The software integrates with popular software including Salesforce, Microsoft 365, and
Google Workspace.

6. Optimizely
Optimizely helps you boost your marketing return on investment (ROI) so that you can
get the most out of your marketing campaigns. The software tests your targeted
messaging and assists you to personalize your marketing campaigns.

On top of that, Optimizely runs constant split and multivariate testing. You get features
such as activity tracking, visual editing, workflow experimentation, visual editing, and
marketing experiments.

Email Marketing

7. Constant Contact
Constant Contact allows you to create email campaigns and track the results of your
campaigns in real-time. The platform has an intuitive drag and drop email builder so
you can create good-looking and on-brand emails without any coding knowledge.

You can add images, text, coupons, videos, polls, and events to your email messages.
Coupled with that, you get over 100 pre-built mobile-optimized email marketing
templates and you get to see metrics like subscriber data, click-through, and open rates.
Among its key benefits are that you can trigger welcome messages especially for new
subscribers; and based on their actions, you can set up drip campaigns.

8. Sendinblue
With Sendinblue, you can grow your business through its fully automated email
marketing solution. You can optimize your email marketing campaigns using its drag
and drop editors plus automation.

Sendinblue also offers landing pages, sign-up forms, Facebook ads, and retargeted ads
for lead nurturing to help your business grow even more. Plus, the software helps you
cultivate an audience, leads, and customer growth.

An intuitive email builder is included with a drag and drop editor so you can create the
look and feel you want in your emails.

9. MailerLite
This email marketing software is ideal for anyone who seeks a simple and
straightforward way of doing email marketing – minus the bells and whistles. You also
get the usual features like landing pages, surveys, popups, and other automation tools so
you’re not limited as such.

The drag and drop editor makes it easy for you to design high-quality images, segment
subscribers, and optimize campaigns using split testing and other features. This way,
you can enhance personalization for your subscribers.

Customer Relationship Management

10. Salesforce
Salesforce is a leading sales software for different business types and sizes. The all-in-
one platform is focused on bringing customer sales and relationships together.

You can improve key metrics across your processes, including your CRM and sales
channels making it easier to sync between them and achieve better efficiency in your
business.

The cloud-based platform makes it easier for business owners to use it, as it comes with
benefits such as cheaper hosting, easy scalability, more security, and speed of running
the CRM.
Salesforce keeps expanding its range of products with extra features and more third-
party apps. You can pick what you need from eCommerce to analytics, B2B marketing
automation, and more.

The beauty about combining Salesforce apps is that you get to realize improved
efficiency. The software is suitable for businesses that can invest money and time into
getting the most out of their CRM software.

An active peer support community is included in case you need help, but you also get
on-call expert support for higher-priced plans.

11. Pipedrive
Pipedrive is another great CRM software that you can use, especially if you’d rather not
deal with the learning curve in Salesforce. The platform is simple, clean, and easy to
pick up and use right away.

You get customer support around the clock, which is rare among typical CRM
platforms, plus features like lead generation, email marketing, and data analysis among
others.

The CRM is ideal for small businesses and marketing teams so you can invigorate your
lead generation efforts while maximizing your sales.

The sales management tool visualizes your sales pipeline and ensures that important
conversations and activities aren’t dropped.

It’s also intuitive and you won’t need to nag your team to use it. Plus, you get built-in
forecasting, a powerful API if you like to roll your own software solution and
integrations with Zapier, MailChimp, and Google Apps.

12. Agile CRM
Agile CRM is a full-service CRM with sales tracking, web analytics, contact
management, marketing automation, two-way emails, helpdesk, telephony, and a clean,
modern interface.

The CRM allows you to automate your sales, marketing, and customer retention process
through a simple and powerful drag and drop editor.
You can also convert your website visitors into leads within the CRM, nurture, track
and score leads based on email and web activity, and enable multi-channel
communication. You can call, email, or tweet to contacts from one page.

Agile CRM also lets you monitor customer behavior and receive alerts in real-time
about customer activities. Plus, you can manage your helpdesk tickets in one place
complete with all customers’ history.

The platform also gives you a detailed record of all your customers’ details and
communication history on one page in chronological format. You also get customer data
delivered from other business apps via extensive integrations.

The top-rated CRM is affordable to use and has a gamification feature that encourages
team competition and collaboration to boost sales along the way. You also get features
like custom appointment calendars, email reports, drag and drop automation, plugins,
and widgets.