Workaround

For the album, see Workaround (album).
Part of the Miles Glacier Bridge, with a temporary repair after a 1964 March earthquake which was finally repaired in July 2004.

A workaround is a bypass[1] of a recognized problem or limitation in a system or policy.[2] A workaround is typically a temporary fix[3][4] that implies that a genuine solution to the problem is needed. But workarounds are frequently as creative as true solutions, involving outside the box thinking[5][6] in their creation.

Typically they are considered brittle[7] in that they will not respond well to further pressure from a system beyond the original design. In implementing a workaround it is important to flag the change so as to later implement a proper solution.[8]

Placing pressure on a workaround may result in later system failures. For example, in computer programming workarounds are often used to address a problem or anti-pattern in a library, such as an incorrect return value. When the library is changed, the workaround may break the overall program functionality, effectively becoming an anti-pattern, since it may expect the older, wrong behaviour from the library.

Workarounds can also be a useful source of ideas for improvement of products or services.[9]

  1. ^ "Workaround/Bypass on 3900 length limit on formula field".
  2. ^ Arif Wibisono, Ibrahim Alhassan, David Sammon, Ciara Heavin, Gaye Kiely, Erma Suryani (2019). "Understanding Theory of Workarounds in Practice". Procedia Computer Science. 161 (3): 187–194. doi:10.1016/j.procs.2019.11.114.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ "IT: a temporary method for dealing with a computer or software problem until a more permanent solution is found: One easy workaround is to ..."
  4. ^ "work around - Definition". Cambridge English Dictionary.
  5. ^ "It requires that social workers think 'outside the box' - outside their normal frames of ...
  6. ^ Mel Gray; John Coates; Michael Yellow Bird (2008). ndigenous Social Work Around the World: Towards Culturally Relevant. Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 978-0754648383.
  7. ^ "Workaround [#1176558]". Drupal.org. 2 June 2011.
  8. ^ "How to Fix the 'A [?]' Autocorrect Bug in iOS 11 When Typing 'i'". 7 November 2017.
  9. ^ "Can't You Just Ask People?". TheAnthroGuys. Retrieved 2014-08-08.