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3.6 Billion People Affected by Software Failures Last Year

$1.7 Trillion Revenue Lost
Wayne Ariola

The 2018 Software Fail Watch report from Tricentis — an analysis of the software failures, defects, and vulnerabilities covered by news organizations from around the globe — investigated 606 failures that affected over 3.6 billion people and caused $1.7 trillion in lost revenue.


Highlights of this year’s Software Fail Watch include:

■ Software failures resulted in 268 years of downtime.

■ The number of reported failures was 10 percent higher in 2017 than in 2016.

■ Retail and consumer technology industries experienced the most software failures of any industry analyzed — making the news an average of 19 times per month.

■ Between July and August of 2017, the average total of software failure stories increased by 25% over previous months, and stayed high for the remainder of the year.

■ Consumer Tech is the industry with the highest level of media-driven brand damage per bug.

Wolfgang Platz, Tricentis founder and CPO, concluded: “Today, software plays a larger part in consumer and business interactions than ever before, and, yet, the number of news stories of reports of bugs being released into production only continues to grow. However, with the right strategies, approaches to automation, and better alignment with the business, I am confident that trend will change.”

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3.6 Billion People Affected by Software Failures Last Year

$1.7 Trillion Revenue Lost
Wayne Ariola

The 2018 Software Fail Watch report from Tricentis — an analysis of the software failures, defects, and vulnerabilities covered by news organizations from around the globe — investigated 606 failures that affected over 3.6 billion people and caused $1.7 trillion in lost revenue.


Highlights of this year’s Software Fail Watch include:

■ Software failures resulted in 268 years of downtime.

■ The number of reported failures was 10 percent higher in 2017 than in 2016.

■ Retail and consumer technology industries experienced the most software failures of any industry analyzed — making the news an average of 19 times per month.

■ Between July and August of 2017, the average total of software failure stories increased by 25% over previous months, and stayed high for the remainder of the year.

■ Consumer Tech is the industry with the highest level of media-driven brand damage per bug.

Wolfgang Platz, Tricentis founder and CPO, concluded: “Today, software plays a larger part in consumer and business interactions than ever before, and, yet, the number of news stories of reports of bugs being released into production only continues to grow. However, with the right strategies, approaches to automation, and better alignment with the business, I am confident that trend will change.”

Hot Topics

The Latest

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A large majority (86%) of data management and AI decision makers cite protecting data privacy as a top concern, with 76% of respondents citing ROI on data privacy and AI initiatives across their organization, according to a new Harris Poll from Collibra ...

According to Gartner, Inc. the following six trends will shape the future of cloud over the next four years, ultimately resulting in new ways of working that are digital in nature and transformative in impact ...

2020 was the equivalent of a wedding with a top-shelf open bar. As businesses scrambled to adjust to remote work, digital transformation accelerated at breakneck speed. New software categories emerged overnight. Tech stacks ballooned with all sorts of SaaS apps solving ALL the problems — often with little oversight or long-term integration planning, and yes frequently a lot of duplicated functionality ... But now the music's faded. The lights are on. Everyone from the CIO to the CFO is checking the bill. Welcome to the Great SaaS Hangover ...

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Regardless of their scale, business decisions often take time, effort, and a lot of back-and-forth discussion to reach any sort of actionable conclusion ... Any means of streamlining this process and getting from complex problems to optimal solutions more efficiently and reliably is key. How can organizations optimize their decision-making to save time and reduce excess effort from those involved? ...

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