Systems failures: an approach to building a coping strategy

When systems fail, they can cause havoc everywhere. They affect the organisations involved in creating, maintaining and using them and they can have a profound effect on the people involved, directly or indirectly. The causes of systems and project failures, vary considerably. Each case has to be taken in isolation and examined, to see where it has gone wrong in the past, or is starting to go wrong at present. In a true-life scenario, it is essential to be able to predict likely problems that may arise or accurately recognise failure symptoms when they occur. To achieve this it is important to be able to identify what is really going on and when these facts have been established, to be able to select a suitable means of handling the situation. Two European Esprit research projects examined software and multimedia quality practices and provided a framework for addressing these issues. These frameworks did not just promote best practices within software engineering, but sought to address some of the wider issues of systems and their role within the business. Middlesex University has taken this theme forward with a specific remit to address the subject of systems failures.