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Repetitive failure, feedback and the lost art of diagnosis

Hatton, Leslie (1999) Repetitive failure, feedback and the lost art of diagnosis. Journal of Systems and Software, 47 (2-3). pp. 183-188. ISSN 0164-1212. (doi:10.1016/S0164-1212(99)00038-2) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:16839)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0164-1212(99)00038-2

Abstract

This paper highlights a growing problem as software systems become more and more tightly coupled and complex, that of poor diagnostic capability. Diagnosis has never been particularly sophisticated in software systems, often being an ad hoc process in which programmers receive no training. As a result, significant numbers of failures in modern systems cannot be diagnosed in the sense of being uniquely related to one or more faults and as such they continue to fail. As a result, modern software systems are unique amongst modern engineering systems is being characterised by repetitive and frequently avoidable failure. This paper discusses the strongly related issues of repetitive failure, feedback and diagnosis in a generally light-hearted way but makes a plea for diagnosis to be an essential feature of systems design. All engineering systems fail and this knowledge should be part of the software design process such that inevitable failures can be quickly related to the contributing fault or faults and the system corrected to avoid future re-occurrence.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1016/S0164-1212(99)00038-2
Subjects: Q Science
Q Science > QA Mathematics (inc Computing science) > QA 76 Software, computer programming,
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences > School of Computing
Depositing User: I.T. Ekpo
Date Deposited: 21 Jun 2009 18:12 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 09:54 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/16839 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Hatton, Leslie.

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