Operational Failure Archive
A reference collection of breakdowns, root causes, and practical lessons based on past real-world companies operational failures.
A reference collection of breakdowns, root causes, and practical lessons based on operational failures at real-world companies.
OFA-01: Target Canada
Unvalidated data corrupted Target Canada's inventory system before launch, creating a catastrophic supply chain failure that led to a $4.1B collapse in 22 months.
OFA-02: Southwest Airlines
Southwest's $800M meltdown and $140M fine exposed the danger of unmonitored Tier 1 tech, cancelling 16,700 flights for 2M passengers when software failed without a functional backup.
OFA-03: Knight Capital
A manual deployment failure across eight servers left deprecated code active, causing a $440 million loss in 45 minutes that ended 18-year-old Knight Capital.
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