Why It Breaks

The ways of breaking listed in Part I do not occur accidentally. When states where specific assumptions have collapsed are left unaddressed, similar ways of breaking tend to be repeatedly observed over time.

This chapter focuses not on the ways of breaking themselves, but on the dynamics by which ways of breaking repeatedly appear. Rather than individual skills or attentiveness, it focuses on structures such as assumptions, decisions, and learning mechanisms.

What is addressed here is not direct causes or solutions. For questions such as "Why does it recur even after fixing?" "Why do improvements not accumulate?" the purpose is to provide a structurally explainable framework.

Themes Addressed

Each of the following themes is not presented as an independent cause, but as part of mutually influencing dynamics.

• Context Erosion
  Assumptions and reasons for decisions are not shared,
  and states accumulate where what is correct and why it is that way cannot be explained.

• Measurement Gap
  Measure does not exist,
  and postponement becomes established as a rational decision while comparison and correction cannot be performed.

• Decision Avoidance
  Risks of bearing decision responsibility are dispersed or delayed,
  and a structure is born in which "not deciding" functions as flexibility.

• Broken Learning Loop
  Retrospectives are not based on observation of facts,
  and Build–Measure–Learn does not hold while only procedures proliferate.

This chapter does not present Failure Patterns. Each theme becomes an assumption for understanding subsequent Patterns.

When these dynamics combine, specific ways of breaking come to appear repeatedly. In Part III, those recurring structures are organized as Failure Patterns.