| Recurring |
one_organization, multiple_organization |
(a) The software failure incident at Twitter experiencing a significant outage is not the first time such an event has occurred within the organization. The article mentions that Twitter was notorious for collapsing under heavy load in its early days, with users remembering the "fail whale" error message when the service was over capacity. Additionally, the article notes that Twitter had a multi-hour outage in 2016. These instances indicate that Twitter has faced similar incidents in the past [130025].
(b) The article mentions a previous major outage that affected a broad swathe of the internet due to an issue with the "content distribution network" Fastly. This incident was triggered by a single user updating their settings, leading to a cascading error that impacted 85% of the sites relying on Fastly's infrastructure. This example shows that software failure incidents have also occurred at other organizations, in this case, Fastly, affecting multiple services [130025]. |
| Phase (Design/Operation) |
design, operation |
(a) The software failure incident related to the design phase can be seen in the article as Twitter experienced a significant outage, with the social network being completely unavailable for almost an hour globally. This outage was attributed to an issue within Twitter itself, as no major infrastructural layer of the internet was affected. The article mentions that Twitter declined to comment on the outage but pointed to a tweet acknowledging the issue and stating they were working to resolve it [130025].
(b) The software failure incident related to the operation phase can be inferred from the article as the outage affected users globally on both web and mobile platforms. Users reported outages in the UK, US, and Europe, indicating that the failure was due to the operation or use of the system. Additionally, the article mentions that Twitter's own status dashboard incorrectly marked the social network and all related services as "operational" throughout the outage, indicating a failure in monitoring and operational procedures [130025]. |
| Boundary (Internal/External) |
within_system |
(a) within_system: The software failure incident with Twitter was within the system. The article mentions that the outage was limited to Twitter itself, and no major infrastructural layer of the internet was affected [130025]. |
| Nature (Human/Non-human) |
non-human_actions |
(a) The software failure incident in the article was not attributed to non-human actions. The outage experienced by Twitter was due to an internal issue within Twitter's own system, as mentioned in the article. The problem was limited to Twitter itself, and no major infrastructural layer of the internet seems to have been affected [130025].
(b) The software failure incident in the article was not attributed to human actions. The outage experienced by Twitter was not caused by any specific human actions mentioned in the article. Twitter declined to comment on the outage, and there was no indication of any human error or action leading to the outage [130025]. |
| Dimension (Hardware/Software) |
software |
(a) The software failure incident reported in Article 130025 was not attributed to hardware issues. The outage experienced by Twitter was limited to the platform itself, with no major infrastructural layer of the internet being affected. This indicates that the failure did not originate from hardware problems but was specific to Twitter's software system.
(b) The software failure incident in Article 130025 was primarily due to issues within the software system of Twitter. The article mentions that Twitter experienced one of its longest outages in years, with the social network being completely unavailable to users globally on both web and mobile platforms. The outage was specific to Twitter itself, and the site's status dashboard incorrectly marked all related services as "operational" throughout the outage, indicating a software-related failure. |
| Objective (Malicious/Non-malicious) |
non-malicious |
(a) The software failure incident in the article does not indicate any malicious intent behind the outage. It appears to be a non-malicious failure caused by technical issues within Twitter's system, leading to the site being completely unavailable for almost an hour globally [130025]. |
| Intent (Poor/Accidental Decisions) |
accidental_decisions |
(a) The software failure incident of Twitter's outage does not seem to be related to poor decisions. The article does not mention any poor decisions made by the company that directly contributed to the outage [130025].
(b) The software failure incident of Twitter's outage appears to be more related to accidental decisions or mistakes. The outage was not attributed to any major infrastructural issues or poor decisions but rather seemed to be an unexpected technical issue that caused the service to become unavailable globally for almost an hour [130025]. |
| Capability (Incompetence/Accidental) |
accidental |
(a) The article does not provide any information suggesting that the Twitter outage was due to development incompetence. The outage seems to have been a technical issue rather than a result of incompetence.
(b) The outage experienced by Twitter appears to have been accidental, as there is no indication in the article that the outage was intentional or caused by malicious activity. It is described as a service becoming unavailable globally, with no major infrastructural layer of the internet being affected. The incident is portrayed as an unexpected event that Twitter was working to resolve, as indicated by their tweet acknowledging the issue and efforts to get the platform back up and running for users [130025]. |
| Duration |
temporary |
(a) The software failure incident in the article was temporary. Twitter experienced an outage for almost an hour, with the service becoming unavailable at 12:55pm UK time and staying off for 45 minutes [Article 130025]. The outage was described as one of the longest and most severe in years for Twitter, but it was eventually resolved within a relatively short period of time, indicating a temporary failure. |
| Behaviour |
crash, other |
(a) crash: The software failure incident described in the article can be categorized as a crash. Twitter experienced a significant outage where the social network was completely unavailable to users globally for almost an hour. This outage resulted in the system losing its state and not performing any of its intended functions, which aligns with the definition of a crash [130025].
(b) omission: The article does not provide information indicating that the software failure incident was due to the system omitting to perform its intended functions at an instance(s) [130025].
(c) timing: The software failure incident was not related to the system performing its intended functions correctly but too late or too early [130025].
(d) value: The software failure incident was not due to the system performing its intended functions incorrectly [130025].
(e) byzantine: The software failure incident was not characterized by the system behaving erroneously with inconsistent responses and interactions [130025].
(f) other: The behavior of the software failure incident can be categorized as a significant outage that affected the availability of the Twitter platform globally, leading to users being unable to access the service. This behavior could be classified as a severe disruption in service delivery, impacting users' ability to engage with the platform [130025]. |