kludges

Kludges, also spelled kluge or kludge, are workarounds or quick-and-dirty solutions that satisfy an immediate need but are clumsy, fragile, and difficult to maintain. The term is common in software engineering, hardware, and other technical fields. Its exact origin is uncertain, but it gained widespread use in mid-20th-century American computing to describe improvised fixes that bypass more robust designs.

Characteristics include ad hoc construction, lack of formal testing, tight coupling to the current environment, poor documentation, and a tendency to degrade as systems evolve. Kludges are frequently implemented to meet urgent deadlines, to prototype features, or to keep a system running when no proper solution is available.

Consequences: while a kludge can deliver a functioning result quickly, it often increases maintenance burden, risk of failure, security vulnerabilities, and technical debt. The fix may become a stubborn part of the system, requiring later work to refactor or replace before it can scale safely.

Management and alternatives: in software engineering, kludges are generally considered undesirable but occasionally unavoidable in crisis situations. Best practices include documenting the rationale, labeling the solution as temporary, planning a refactor or redesign, and implementing more robust approaches such as modular architecture, proper error handling, automated tests, or feature flags. When possible, introduce a planned migration path rather than extending the kludge.

See also: technical debt, workaround, hack (in computing), spaghetti code, patch (software).