Ongelmanjuoksevat

Ongelmanjuoksevat is a Finnish neologism used to describe a class of problems in complex, interdependent systems that, once triggered, propagate across components and persist, complicating resolution. The term is employed in risk management, systems theory, and IT governance to denote issues that resist containment and exhibit cascading behavior rather than remaining isolated faults.

Etymology: The word is formed from ongelma, meaning problem, and juoksevat, the plural present form of juosta or an adjective meaning running or flowing. Taken together, ongelmanjuoksevat evokes problems that “run” through or flow across a system rather than stopping at a single point.

Characteristics: Ongelmanjuoksevat typically have cascading impact across domains, late or ambiguous detection, and feedback loops that reinforce the fault. They are hard to eradicate because they are distributed, often hidden in interdependencies, and require cross-functional responses, systemic analysis, and design changes rather than isolated fixes.

Applications and examples: In software engineering, a memory leak that gradually degrades throughput can trigger system‑level failures across services. In supply chains, a small supplier disruption may propagate to inventory shortages in multiple regions. In organizations, restructuring or policy changes can erode tacit knowledge and create new misalignments that sustain the problem.

See also: cascading failure; complex systems; risk management; systems thinking.