Fail Fast / Graceful Degradation
Kind: tension
Record: tension:fail-fast-graceful-degradation
Canonical: Schema
"fail-fast" (correctness-core layer) is traded against "Graceful Degradation" (correctness-core layer) — a principle cannot be scope-separated from a quality, metric, or cost it competes with; resolve by measuring "Graceful Degradation" and choosing an explicit operating point.
Listed in Tensions, after Defensive Programming / Verbosity and before Fail Safe / Availability.