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| '''Failure''' (or '''flop''') in general refers to the state or ] of not meeting a desirable or intended objective. It may be viewed as the opposite of ]. | '''Failure''' (or '''flop''') in general refers to the state or ] of not meeting a desirable or intended objective. It may be viewed as the opposite of ]. | ||
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| == Criteria for failure == | |||
| The criteria for failure are heavily dependent on context of use, and may be ] to a particular ] or ]. A situation considered to be a failure by one might be considered a success by another, particularly in cases of direct ] or a ] ]. 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 ]s, to judge the success or failure of a situation may itself be a significant task. | 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 ]s, to judge the success or failure of a situation may itself be a significant task. | ||
Revision as of 20:08, 31 December 2007
"Fail" and "Phail" redirect here. For Failure, see Fail (disambiguation).Failure (or flop) 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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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.
Flavors of failure
Failure can be differentially perceived from the viewpoints of the evaluators. A person who is only interested in the final outcome of an activity would consider it to be an Outcome Failure if the core issue has not been resolved or a core need is not met. A failure can also be a process failure whereby although the activity is completed successfully, a person may still feel dissatisfied if the underlying process is perceived to be below expected standard or benchmark.
- Failure to anticipate
- Failure to perceive
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. Due to the subjective nature of "success" and "meeting expectations", there can be disagreement about what constitutes a "major flop."
- For flops in computer and video gaming, see List of commercial failures in computer and video gaming
- For company failures related to the 1997–2001 Dot-com bubble, see Dot-com company.
- See also Vaporware
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
See also
- Cascading failure
- Debugging
- Failure analysis
- Failure rate
- Failure mode
- Murphy's law
- New product development
- Non-event
- Power outage
- Product
- Product management
- Single point of failure
- Structural failure
- Tensile strength
- White elephant
- System accident
References
- Charles Perrow, Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies, New Tork: Basic Books, 1983. Paperback reprint, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-691-00412-9
- Bush, George W, Miserable Failure: The Republican Party in the 21st Century, Dubya Press, 2007. ISBN 010010012
- Sandage, Scott A. Born Losers: A History of Failure in America. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-674-01510-X, ISBN 0-674-02107-X
- Gay, Jared I. Enough Idle Chit-chat, Let's RPG!: An in-depth analysis of Toad's failures Some Place, Australia. ISBN 0-867-53090-X
External links
- Critical spare parts
- Failure magazine
- Great Failures of the Extremely Successful
- On Entreprenurial Failure
- Designing Building Failures
- Success with Failure, Comic strip featuring the ups and downs (mostly the latter) of IT consulting