Definition
The rule that a recurring workaround raises a presumption of upstream design failure. Where people repeatedly improvise around a system — unofficial spreadsheets, manual overrides, elaborate user guides, a famous fixer of impossible cases — the first reading is not that adaptable humans are handling edge cases but that the formal system does not fit the world it operates in.
It matters because organizations usually read workarounds in the opposite direction, as resilience, and scale the system on the strength of the human subsidy that is compensating for it. The presumption is not proof; it must be rebutted by showing the workaround is a product of preference rather than compensation. Where the absorbed share is large, the people absorbing are performing the institution's safety function, which strengthens the case for corrective standing.
Tests that show it is in place
- A recurring workaround is treated as a signal for investigation rather than a resilience story.
- Workaround frequency is measured where it occurs, including at the operator and user layers.
- The institution can show that an inventoried workaround is preference, not compensation.
Evidence to keep
- Artifact: A workaround register or an exception-code ledger with frequency.
- Behavior: An inventoried workaround that survives to its second month without a design review.
- Metric: Recurring workaround classes that have not been investigated upstream.
References
- Exception learning · Theory