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Is there any terminology for a problem that is caused by a previous wrong decision?

For example you build your own framework, with a flawed MVC design. This in turn leads to weird situations when routing requests. A person then asks how to solve the latter problem, while the actual problem is the wrong design of the framework.

I've tried searching several descriptions but as I'm looking for the word, it's hard to find anything relevant.

It's not one of these Anti-patterns

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    meta.programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/6582/…
    – gnat
    Commented Aug 6, 2014 at 13:40
  • You call it: the "why is everyone inventing their own framework" problem.
    – Pieter B
    Commented Aug 6, 2014 at 13:42
  • Well the framework example is just... and example. I know there is a word for this type of problem, and it's not only used in design/framework situations.
    – NDM
    Commented Aug 6, 2014 at 13:43
  • Maybe it should be called a "systemic" problem. Since this could easily apply to non-software systems, you could ask a more general English terminology question here: english.stackexchange.com/questions
    – FrustratedWithFormsDesigner
    Commented Aug 6, 2014 at 13:45

2 Answers 2

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I think this question has no answer because problems aren't categorized by what they're caused by, but by what kind of problem they are. A security vulnerability can be caused by a design flaw or an implementation error, regardless: it's a security vulnerability.

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  • Well there is an answer because I've read about the specific term before, and I forgot what it is called. It's not about the problem itself. It's the fact that people are looking at the wrong part of the system to find the solution. making that problem itself a non-issue that should not even exist.
    – NDM
    Commented Aug 6, 2014 at 13:57
  • that's the XY problem
    – Pieter B
    Commented Aug 6, 2014 at 13:59
  • I think that's what I'm looking for, thx.
    – NDM
    Commented Aug 6, 2014 at 14:00
  • im gonna remove the question, since Ii'm not sensing much love for these type of questions :) edit: answered question cant be deleted and I prefer you getting points, so gg.
    – NDM
    Commented Aug 6, 2014 at 14:00
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I think the term "technical debt" is used often to mean precisely that.

Wikipedia's definition seems to describe what you express in your question:

Technical debt (also known as design debt or code debt) is a neologistic metaphor referring to the eventual consequences of poor system design, software architecture or software development within a codebase. The debt can be thought of as work that needs to be done before a particular job can be considered complete or proper. If the debt is not repaid, then it will keep on accumulating interest, making it hard to implement changes later on. Unaddressed technical debt increases software entropy.

The term does not refer though to any given problem but to the sum af all of them.

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