Workaround

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What Does Workaround Mean?

A workaround is a concept that describes a short-term or temporary solution to a problem. Often the software development lifecycle for a product is very short and the development team may face many critical issues if the project of a similar nature has not been undertaken in the past by the organization. Under such circumstances, the project manager is expected to generate or formulate a workaround as a solution unless the team can concentrate on the exact solution.

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Techopedia Explains Workaround

A workaround offers a temporary solutions so that developers can focus on other (more important) tasks. The developers must ensure that appropriate effort is undertaken to identify the problem and determine the effectiveness of the workaround at a later stage.

The problem associated with workarounds is when they are not flexible enough to meet future demands and pressures. There is a fine line between a workaround to meet a deadline, and taking shortcuts on code quality. Many developers would argue that workarounds are really just an excuse for improper business goals and fast-tracked development schedules and could be avoided if there were proper planning.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.