Software Failure Replay
Software Failure Replay offers a strategic capability for accelerating software delivery and gaining competitive advantage.
Integrated into a CI/CD workflow, Software Failure Replay is used to automatically and systematically record a program under test.
Software Failure Replay records the execution of a program (down to instruction level) as it fails - capturing bugs in the act. The output - a recording artifact - provides developers with all the data they need to understand what happened - without wasting days or weeks trying to reproduce the issue.
Developers can replay the recording forwards and backwards - at any time and on any machine - to diagnose the root-cause of the issue. Replay can be likened to "winding the tape" back and forth in real-time in order to get a clear picture of a program's execution.
Software Failure Replay vs traditional methods of debugging
While there have been huge advances in building software over the last few decades, the way developers approach debugging has hardly changed.
Unlike traditional debugging which is predominantly based on guesswork, Software Failure Replay provides data-driven and actionable insights into what software did before it failed. Developers get full visibility into what their software actually did (not what it might have done).
By offering a systematic repeatable debugging workflow, Software Failure Replay is proven to reduce the Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR) of test failures by 4 - 10x.
As well as enabling engineers to quickly resolve typical defects faster, it also helps them to rapidly diagnose flaky tests caused by intermittent failures. Flaky tests are known to be a major cause of frustration and time wastage. Due to their intermittent nature, it is impossible to predict how long it will take to fix them. Software Failure Replay offers a way to make bug fixing predictable in the way that logging or standard debuggers cannot.
Development teams building complex enterprise software typically spend over 50% of their engineering effort in addressing software failures.
10 Benefits of Software Failure Replay
Whether the failures occur in test, development, or production, there are many benefits of Software Failure Replay.
Software Failure Replay helps engineering teams to:
- Enhance automation efficiency
Improve test automation efficiency by acquiring actionable data for promptly resolving failing tests - Boost productivity
Time spent debugging can be reduced - enabling teams to focus on new feature delivery - Debug locally or remotely any time and on any machine
Portable recordings allow engineers to debug any time anywhere - Enable cross-team collaboration
Collaboration efficiency is improved between developers and testers/QA, thanks to shareable recording files - Increase understandability
Code can be effectively debugged and maintained without the need for prior codebase knowledge
At a strategic business level, Software Failure Replay offers enables businesses to:
- Shorten development cycles and accelerate product delivery
- Gain a competitive edge by reducing time to market
- Improve operational efficiency and reduce engineering costs
- Minimizes customer disruption by resolving customer issues faster
- Helps protect brand reputation and revenue
Software Failure Replay has a net positive impact across all stages of the development lifecycle. Crucially, it is being used as a strategic investment to gain competitive advantage.
How Software Failure Replay fits into your pipeline
Software Failure Replay helps software development teams achieve continuous delivery across the development lifecycle, whether in test, development or production phases - as outlined in the model below.
Where and how Software Failure Replay is deployed is dependent upon the specific needs of the software engineering team. The common thread throughout is the ability to obtain all the data needed to resolve software failures fast.
LiveRecorder - the leading Software Failure Replay platform
LiveRecorder is the leading Software Failure Replay platform. It is used as an essential ingredient in CI/CD workflows to accelerate software delivery by reducing the Mean Time to Resolution of failing tests.
Put simply, LiveRecorder is the solution to failing tests.
The diagram below provides an example of how LiveRecorder can integrate into a modern CI pipeline.
This video explains in more detail how LiveRecorder integrates with automated CI test suites.
With LiveRecorder, time spent on root cause detection is significantly reduced. Developers can get straight to debugging the recording artifact - reducing the number of loops in agile development cycles and increasing development velocity. LiveRecorder can be used to resolve software failures in C/C++ and Java applications built on Linux x86.
In conclusion
Software Failure Replay transforms software failure resolution from being a slow process of elimination into a systematic, repeatable workflow:
- Making bug fixing predictable and improving CI/CD pipeline efficiency
- Accelerating defect resolution and therefore product delivery
- Enabling adopters to gain competitive advantage
To discuss how LiveRecorder could work in your environment and see it in action, request a 1to1 call or team demo by filling in the form below.