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In software testing an anomaly is everything that differs from expectation (see IEEE 1044-1993: Standard Classification for Software Anomalies). This expectation can result from many things like from a document (e.g. the expected behaviour is not always written down explicitly, so the developer may implement it differently) or from a persons view (e.g. the person has another sensation of usability) or experiences (e.g. the specification is not clear on one thing and the person also knows competitor products, where such a feature is implemented or where the tested software behaves different than these). Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wiktionary is a multilingual, Web-based project to create a free content dictionary, available in over 150 languages. ... Software testing is the process used to help identify the correctness, completeness, security, and quality of developed computer software. ...

An anomaly also can point to a new feature or an usability problem, because the testobject may be correct regarding the specification - but it can be improved.
Another possibility for an anomaly is, that a tester executed the testcase wrong and therefore the expected result is also wrong. As IEEE says, the word anomaly should be favoured because it has a more neutral meaning. Some common terms: bug, fault, failure, error, defect, problem, deviation, glitch, incident, crash.
Software in this article is more than just source code (see IEEE 610-1990 and Wikiversity: software testing). There belongs also: programs, procedures and documentation, and data for the concerning processing on a computer system. There is also counted testware to the term software. Usability is a term used to denote the ease with which people can employ a particular tool or other human-made object in order to achieve a particular goal. ... A software bug is an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program that prevents it from behaving as intended (e. ... There are various types of faults: In document ISO/CD 10303-226, a fault is defined as an abnormal condition or defect at the component, equipment, or sub-system level which may lead to a failure. ... Look up failure in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The word error has different meanings in different domains. ... Defect is the n00b of the animating world, everybody knows that he cannot and will not animate. ... Look up Problem in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In radio, frequency deviation is the result of frequency modulation. ... Glitch City, a Pokémon programming error that creates a jumble of pixels. ... A graph with 6 vertices (nodes) and 7 edges. ... A crash in computing is a condition where a program (either an application or part of the operating system) stops performing its expected function and also stops responding to other parts of the system. ...

So, the time and place of anomalies can be pretty anywhere in the SDLC (Software development life cycle) - it should not be seen from end user perspective only. Most people see anomalies (e.g. failures) during analytical quality assurance measures, but in fact the reason for this anomaly happened probably way much earlier. And this is why also preventive quality assurance are more important, so anomalies are found earlier, which can result in lower costs. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Software development process. ...

Examples for anomalies

• Famous anomalies
• different screens of death: Screen of Death, Blue Screen of Death
• an anomaly in the game Super Mario Bros.: the Minus World
• On 8th December 2005 hundred of thousands people wanted to buy at the stock exchange Tokio shares which were offered for 1 Yen. What did happen? There were two input-fields: price and amount of shares to sell. One person wanted to sell only one share for 610000 Yen (around 4300 Euro), but he confused and typed: 610000 shares for 1 Yen.
• in white box testing: data flow anomaly and control flow anomaly
• Easter egg
• buffer overflow, deadlock, division by zero, memory leak, hang
• more examples you can find in following categories: Category:Computer errors, Category:Programming bugs, Category:Screens of death

A software bug is an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program that prevents it from behaving as intended (e. ... In many computer operating systems, a special type of error message will display onscreen when the system has experienced a fatal error. ... A public payphone that has failed and is displaying the Blue Screen of Death. ... Super Mario Bros. ... World 36-1 in Super Mario Bros. ... White box testing, clear box testing, glass box testing or structural testing is used in computer programming, software engineering and software testing to check that the outputs of a program, given certain inputs, conform to the structural specification of the program. ... The first easter egg. ... In computer security and programming, a buffer overflow, or buffer overrun, is a programming error which may result in a memory access exception and program termination, or in the event of the user being malicious, a breach of system security. ... It has been suggested that Circular wait be merged into this article or section. ... In mathematics, a division is called a division by zero if the divisor is zero. ... In computer science, a memory leak is a particular kind of unintentional memory consumption by a computer program where the program fails to release memory when no longer needed. ... This page is about the computer malfunction called hanging. ...

Usage of the term anomaly

Of course when everybody now would use the term anomaly only, there can arise problems like:
people do not know immediately where the anomaly is located: e.g. is it something a user would see (like a crash) or a spelling error in a never executed part of the sourcecode.
But one problem is, that there are different definitions in general public for the different terms (see discussion page). So the term anomaly defines a common ground from where people can approach.

References

• IEEE 1044-1993: Standard Classification for Software Anomalies., page 1, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., New York, USA, 1994, ISBN 1-55937-383-0

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers or IEEE (pronounced as eye-triple-ee) is an international non-profit, professional organization incorporated in the State of New York, United States. ...

See also

• Wikipedia: bug report: do you want to help improve Wikipedia?
• Bug tracking system: the place, where anomalies are collected during software development life cycle
• Issue tracking system: can also used like the bug tracking system, in general used for anomalies by customers
• Crash (computing)
• List of commercial failures in computer and video gaming
• Undocumented feature

A bugtracker is an issue tracking system that is designed especially to manage problems (software bugs) with computer programs. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Software development process. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Bugtracker. ... A crash in computing is a condition where a program (either an application or part of the operating system) stops performing its expected function and also stops responding to other parts of the system. ... A reference must be provided for all titles All items on this list should currently have at least one reference link, at least one of which must specify the title as a failure. ... Undocumented features are frequently found in computer software releases. ...

External links