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In computer programming and software engineering, software brittleness is the increased difficulty in fixing older software that may appear reliable, but instead, fails, when presented with unusual data or altered in a seemingly minor way. The phrase is derived from analogies to brittleness in metalworking. [1]
When software is new, it is very malleable; it can be formed to be whatever is wanted by the implementers. But as the software in a given project grows larger and larger, and develops a larger base of users with long experience with the software, it becomes less and less malleable. Like a metal that has been work-hardened, the software becomes a legacy system, brittle and unable to be easily maintained without fracturing the entire system.[ citation needed ]
Brittleness in software can be caused by algorithms that do not work well for the full range of input data. Following, are some examples:
Very often, an old codebase is simply abandoned in favor of a brand-new one (which is intended to be free of many of the burdens of the legacy system; a.k.a. a rewrite) created from scratch, but this can be an expensive and time-consuming process.
Some examples and reasons behind software brittleness:
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