graceful degradation
Failing with dignity
Graceful degradation describes a system's ability to continue functioning, albeit with reduced capability, when part of it fails or encounters problems.
The term originated in engineering and computing, where a gracefully degrading system maintains core functions even as peripheral features become unavailable.
The website's graceful degradation ensures users on older browsers can still access basic content.
The concept has spread to other contexts where maintaining partial functionality beats complete failure.
Automatic backup system activation
- backupStored duplicate for recovery
- contingencyUncertain possible event
- plan BAlternative when primary fails
- alternativeAnother available choice
safety net · substitute · replacement · standby · secondary · auxiliary · interim · stopgap
System continues despite failures
- robustnessResistance to failure
- error handlingManaging program failures gracefully
- recoveryRegaining what was lost
- uptimeContinuous operational period
availability · redundancy · self-healing · stability · load balancing · failsafe · circuit breaker · throttling
Support for older versions
- legacy supportMaintaining older system functionality
- cross-platformWorks on multiple systems
- interoperabilityCross-platform functional harmony
- versioningTracking successive iterations
legacy systems · feature detection · accessibility · mobile-friendly · responsive design · cross-browser · HTML5 · JavaScript
failover
Automatic backup system activation
- backupStored duplicate for recovery
- contingencyUncertain possible event
- plan BAlternative when primary fails
alternative · safety net · substitute · replacement · standby · secondary · auxiliary · interim · stopgap · provisional
fault tolerance
System continues despite failures
- robustnessResistance to failure
- error handlingManaging program failures gracefully
- recoveryRegaining what was lost
uptime · availability · redundancy · self-healing · stability · load balancing · failsafe · circuit breaker · throttling
backward compatibility
Support for older versions
- legacy supportMaintaining older system functionality
- cross-platformWorks on multiple systems
- interoperabilityCross-platform functional harmony
versioning · legacy systems · feature detection · accessibility · mobile-friendly · responsive design · cross-browser · HTML5 · JavaScript · APIs
- safeguardssafeguards, safety valve, protections, kill switch, defenses
- fault toleranceredundancy, failover, failsafe, fail-safe, disaster recovery
- system qualitiesreliability, availability, scalability, performance, usability
- resilienceresilience, grit, bounce back, bouncing back, robustness
- reliabilityreliable, dependable, trustworthy, consistent, faithful
- debuggingdebug, debugging, debugger, breakpoint, breakpoints
graceful degradationcascading failure
Successive linked breakdowns
system crash · crash · sudden death · total breakdown · fatal error