Bug Opens Doors In New Zealand
Friday, April 29th, 2011 by The DirectorNot metaphorical doors. The real doors:
A computer glitch at a New Zealand supermarket led to its doors being opened despite being officially closed, allowing shoppers to walk away with free groceries, The (London) Times reports.
At 8am Friday, the New Zealand supermarket’s computerized system opened its doors and switched on its lights, ready for business as usual. The only problem was nobody had actually told the computer it was Good Friday, a day when supermarkets in New Zealand don’t open, and there was not a checkout person in sight.
That didn’t stop the locals in the North Island city of Hamilton, and soon the Pak ‘n Save aisles were as busy as any normal day, although shoppers were filling their carts and walking straight past the checkout to their cars.
To be honest, this sounds like more of a configuration issue than an actual software bug. Hopefully, the list of holidays and dates would be configurable in any regard. However, we’re reading a story on an Australian Web site that recounts what was reported in a London newspaper, so everything, from the actual occurrence to the reasons behind it, is suspect.
However, it does lend itself to something of a lesson for QA: If your software/embedded systems are to be used around the world, how familiar are you with the processes and impacts in your target markets? You could do like Trisherino does and study from a high level a different country each week, but most importantly, you need to understand practical considerations of your target markets, including character sets and calendars, to test effectively.