Fire Fighting

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What Does Fire Fighting Mean?

Firefighting, in computing, refers to the emergency allocation of resources that are necessary to handle an unexpected problem. The term implies that the effort goes into chasing bugs rather than integrating new features.

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This term can be spelt as either fire-fighting, fire fighting, or firefighting.

Techopedia Explains Fire Fighting

For example, in software development, firefighting may involve the assigning of additional programmers to fix coding bugs that are identified in close proximity to a product’s release date. In the context of security, firefighting may involve the allocation of resources to take care of an information system breach or a computer virus outbreak. In the individual user level, firefighting may involve the handling of software or hardware issues that might have been avoided through standard computer maintenance techniques.

Many organizations are well prepared to handle a fire-fighting situation; however, a frequently repeating emergency situation reflects poor planning, or a lack of efficiency, and will result in the wastage of resources that are actually required somewhere else. To maintain firefighting to a minimal level, in-depth disaster recovery planning (DRP) is required, which anticipates and hopefully prevents such emergencies.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.