Workaround

A workaround (English: around a little work ) is a detour to avoid a known misbehavior of a technical system. It is a utility method that does not solve the real problem, but with additional effort bypasses its symptoms.

Faulty designs of microprocessors for example, require workarounds in operating systems with patches. In application software may be a workaround, a repeat of their installation.

The term is often used in the field of software development. If an error occurs in a program, can be often find such an auxiliary structure that lets you do it now, but still quite uncomfortable ( labor) reach the desired target. In processor technology workarounds for example in the form of additional commands to circumvent unfavorable architecture specifications (wrong planning, wrong layout) are used.

In the context of ITIL processes, incidents are often solved by workarounds short term. Once a sustainable solution to the problem that caused the incident, was developed in the problem management, this can be implemented by a change. The temporary workaround is no longer necessary.