E.12:6 - Common Anti-Patterns and How to Avoid Them

Anti-Pattern	Manager’s View: What It Looks Like	How FPF Prevents It (Conceptually)
The “Ivory Tower” Framework	The FPF specification becomes a beautiful but impenetrable fortress of abstract logic that no practicing engineer can actually use.	A practitioner can report a concrete obstacle and request inquiry into its cause. A supported proposal follows the applicable content-decision or editorial rule; reviewer competence and assignment do not themselves grant authority to amend the framework.
The “Meaningless Rationale”	The `rationale` field is filled with boilerplate text like “To increase assurance,” without a connection to the problem.	The “So What?” test asks the author to explain the cognitive or practical benefit claimed for the formal work. A perfunctory `rationale` fails this pattern’s rationale requirement; assess any assurance-level claim separately against its applicable `B.3.3` profile.
Glorifying Complexity	A culture emerges where the most complex and difficult-to-understand models are considered the “best,” regardless of their utility.	The core principle of Cognitive Elegance (P-1) and the mechanisms in this pattern create a constant pressure towards simplicity and clarity. Inspect the specific obstruction and compare a meaning-preserving alternative; retain necessary subject complexity and independently justified controls.