Failure
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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For other senses of this word, see Failure (disambiguation).
Failure in general refers to the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective. It may be viewed as the opposite of success.
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[edit] Criteria for failure
The criteria for failure are heavily dependent on context of use, and may be relative to a particular observer or belief system. A situation considered to be a failure by one might be considered a success by another, particularly in cases of direct competition or a zero-sum game. As well, the degree of success or failure in a situation may be differently viewed by distinct observers or participants, such that a situation that one considers to be a failure, another might consider to be a success, a qualified success or a neutral situation.
It may also be difficult or impossible to ascertain whether a situation meets criteria for failure or success due to ambiguous or ill-defined definition of those criteria. Finding useful and effective criteria, or heuristics, to judge the success or failure of a situation may itself be a significant task.
[edit] Commercial failures
A commercial failure is a product that does not reach expectations of success, failing to come even close. A major flop goes one step further and is recognized for its complete lack of success.
Most of the items listed below had high expectations, significant financial investments, and/or widespread publicity, but fell far short of success. Obviously, due to the subjective nature of "success" and "meeting expectations", there can be disagreement about what constitutes a "major flop."
- For a list of miscellaneous commercial product and service failures, see List of miscellaneous commercial failures.
- For flops in computer and video gaming, see List of commercial failures in computer and video gaming.
- For flops concerning groceries, see List of grocery marketing flops.
- For computer-related flops, see List of commercial failures in computer technology.
- For aviational commercial failures, see List of commercial failures in aviation.
- For company failures related to the 1997–2001 Dot-com bubble, see Dot-com company.
- See also Vaporware.
[edit] Other failures
- For military disasters, see List of military disasters
- For events that were highly anticipated but either did not happen or turned out to be disappointing, see Non-event.
- For flops in entertainment, see List of flops in entertainment.
- For flops in sports, see List of sports flops.
[edit] References
- Lansdowne, Bridget L.M. BOOM, BUST, BANG!: A History of American Failures. Staskin Mellville-Organization Press, 2004. ISBN ?.
- Charles Perrow, Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies, New Tork: Basic Books, 1984. Paperback reprint, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-691-00412-9
- Sandage, Scott A. Born Losers: A History of Failure in America. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2005. ISBN 067401510X, ISBN 067402107X.
[edit] See also
- Cascading failure
- Debugging
- Failure analysis
- Failure mode
- Failure rate
- Murphy's law
- New product development
- Non-event
- Power outage
- Product
- Product management
- Single point of failure
- Structural failure
- System accident
- Tensile strength
- White elephant
[edit] External links
- Failure magazine
- Designing Building Failures
- Success with Failure, Comic strip featuring the ups and downs (mostly the latter) of IT consulting
