Hide The Dirt Under The Carpet

Context:

You have to clean the room (and of course remove the dirt). Assuming you don't have a vacuum cleaner, but only a broom.

Forces:

Getting the dirt out to the trash bin requires a considerable effort.

Wrong Solution:

With precise maneuvers you gather the dirt in one place near the carpet, then lift the margin of the carpet and push the dirt underneath the carpet. Now the room looks clean, but it isn't.

This is a recurring anti-pattern in many contexts, you pretend you solve a problem by addressing the wrong issue. The problem was not to make the room look clean, but to make it be clean.

Contrast FixBrokenWindows.

Is this really an AntiPattern? It seems to me that this can be a useful first step in ReFactoring (at least as long as it's not the last step, that is). -- MikeSmith

The problem as I see it is one of not having correct resources to do the job. The providers of the equipment have not seen it necessary to match resource requirements with task requirements. This is a recurrent problem when resources are provided by another organizational unit. This may be the result of impositions on the budgetary resources made available to them. Result: provide brooms in place of the vacuum cleaner, even though it does not truly substitute for it in that a broom has no receptacle for the swept trash. Never mind that a waste basket and a dust pan are minimal expenses. In a LearningOrganization, this is no problem, the custodian just requests the waste baskets and dust pans which are necessary, they are swiftly provided, problem solved.

I recall a situation with similar problems where two printers, one color and another b&w, are placed conveniently near their users, connected to the network and found to be productivity boosters. But the buyer of consumables decides not to supply adequate replacement ink and laser cartridges for the normal demand. The decision by the buyer is to write a memo to the users, suggesting a curtailment of printouts to extend the consumable lifetime. If printouts are found to be absolutely necessary, they are to to be sent to the network printer at an overworked secretary's desk, where the task of delivering the printouts to the submitter will take place as soon as possible, given other, often higher perceived or required priority tasks are completed.

Ever see such a pattern where you work?

CategoryOrganization