Omission Failure in System Design

Omission failure is a type of design error that falls under the designing failures category. As we all know system design is a process of designing systems specifying the architecture, parts, components, modules, interfaces, and data so as to meet certain requirements. It entails a number of tasks that must be meticulously planned and carried out in order to guarantee that the finished system will satisfy the requirements of its intended users.

The possibility of overlooking or omitting an essential requirement or feature never goes away, even with the best planning and execution, which can result in omission failure.

What is Omission Failure?

Omission failure happens when a crucial requirement or feature is accidentally or intentionally omitted from the design. This could occur when designers overlook some needs or eventualities that the system may need to manage. Particularly in safety-critical systems used in aviation, healthcare, and other industries, it may have detrimental effects.

For instance, a medical gadget without a safety feature may cause harm or even patient death. Similarly, a catastrophic disaster could happen if an aircraft control system is missing a crucial component. To avoid such tragic results, it is crucial to identify and remedy system design omission failure.

Reasons for Omission Failure

They are quite harmful to the system, as they go unnoticed until it is detected, because they may not be immediately apparent. Moreover, it can happen at any stage of designing the system or while implementing it. There can be a number of reasons why they happen in the first place:

1. Lack of resources or time.
2. Miscommunication between stakeholders, and the development team.

Preventive Measures for Omission Failure

By following the below steps, it is possible to prevent omission failures in an application design and ensure that all important features and requirements are incorporated into the final product:

1. Conduct a comprehensive requirements analysis: Prior to the design process starting, all user requirements and needs must be identified. To make sure that all features and requirements are discovered and taken into account in the design, it’s crucial to take into account all feasible situations and user interactions.
2. Involve a diverse group of stakeholders in the design process: End users, subject matter specialists, and other pertinent parties are included in this. Diverse stakeholders should be involved in order to guarantee that all viewpoints and needs are taken into account.
3. Use design patterns and best practices: To make sure that crucial features and criteria are not overlooked in the design, a number of design patterns and best practices can be implemented. For instance, the modularity, scalability, and maintainability of the design can be ensured using the SOLID design principles.
4. Conduct End to End testing and take user feedback: Finding potential design flaws in an application might be aided by end-to-end testing it with actual users. Users can offer suggestions for functionality or features that are lacking in the design.

Example:

• Suppose a company is developing a web-based shopping platform that allows users to browse and purchase products online. During the design phase, the development team decides to implement a search function that allows users to search for products by keywords. However, they omit an important feature that enables users to filter search results by price range.
• When the platform is launched, users quickly realize that they cannot filter their search results by price range, which makes it difficult to find products within their budget. As a result, many users abandon the platform and switch to a competitor that offers this feature.
• In this example, the omission failure was the failure to include a filter by price range in the search function of the web application. This omission led to a significant decrease in user satisfaction and a loss of market share for the company.

Note: Omission failure can have serious consequences, particularly in safety-critical systems. However, it is feasible to avoid omission failures and guarantee that all crucial features and needs are incorporated in the design by employing a systematic approach to system design and incorporating all pertinent stakeholders in the process.