Lava Flow

Kind: anti-pattern

Layer: Enforcement Core

Record: architecture:lava-flow

Severity: discouraged

Scope: architecture_evolution

Formed by: Preserve obsolete, half-migrated, or unexplained code paths because no record says whether they are still needed.

Canonical: Ontology

A defect in which obsolete or half-migrated code survives because nothing records whether it is still needed.

Listed in Architecture principles, after Pattern Cargo Cult and before Zombie Code.

Refactored by

• Usage Instrumentation
• Assign Owner
• Deprecation Plan
• Delete After Evidence

Severity

• discouraged

Category

• Anti-patterns

Force

• Architecture evolution

Negated by

• Evolutionary Architecture

Linked from

• Fail at the boundary
• An anti-pattern is a decay path
• Anti-patterns
• Architecture Review / Evolution / Governance Artifacts
• Architecture Review Evolution Governance
• Observability / Auditability / Traceability
• Severity levels
• The forces