vikasietoinen

Vikasietoinen (fault-aware or defect-tolerant in English) is a Finnish term used to describe systems, processes, or mindsets that are designed to anticipate, detect, and manage faults or defects to maintain operation and safety.

Etymology: The word is formed from vika, meaning defect or fault, and the suffix -sietoinen, which conveys tolerance or acceptance. The combination expresses awareness of defects and readiness to respond.

In technology and engineering contexts, vikasietoinen design emphasizes redundancy, fault detection and isolation, error handling, monitoring, and graceful degradation; examples include redundant power supplies, watchdog timers, automated failover, and self-healing systems.

In quality management and organizational practice, the term can denote defect-aware planning and continuous improvement—systems that identify root causes, implement corrective actions, and prevent recurrence, contributing to reliability and safety.

See also: Related concepts include fault tolerance, resilience, dependability, and reliability engineering. While not uniformly standardized across all Finnish disciplines, vikasietoinen is commonly used to describe approaches that integrate defect awareness into design and operation to enhance robustness.