Software Testing – Fundamental

1. Ariane 5 Rocket Explosion (1996)

Ariane 5

What Happened

The Ariane 5 rocket exploded 37 seconds after launch.

Root Cause

A software conversion error occurred.

A 64-bit floating point number was converted into a 16-bit integer, which caused an overflow error.

Why Testing Failed

The software used was copied from Ariane 4 rocket without proper testing for Ariane 5 conditions.

Damage

Loss of about $370 million.

Lesson for Testers

Never reuse code without testing under new conditions.


2. Knight Capital Trading Disaster (2012)

Knight Capital Group

What Happened

A deployment mistake caused the system to start buying and selling stocks randomly.