Failure in software testing?

If under certain environment and situation defects in the application or product get executed then the system will produce the wrong results causing a failure.

Not all defects result in failures, some may stay inactive in the code and we may never notice them. Example:  Defects in dead code will never result in failures.

It is not just defects that give rise to failure. Failures can also be caused because of the other reasons also like:

  • Because of the environmental conditions as well like a radiation burst, a strong magnetic field, electronic field or pollution could cause faults in hardware or firmware. Those faults might prevent or change the execution of software.
  • Failures may also arise because of human error in interacting with the software, perhaps a wrong input value being entered or an output being misinterpreted.
  • Finally failures may also be caused by someone deliberately trying to cause a failure in the system.