MMP.8.SD:8 - Common Anti-Patterns and How to Avoid Them

Anti-pattern	What goes wrong	Repair
Latest reading called the state	Histories with different resources or beliefs become indistinguishable.	Compare the histories’ allowed actions and continuation, then retain the missing distinction.
Future knowledge used now	A policy selects a branch before its observation arrives.	Place observations and commitments on the same decision timeline.
Immediate score treated as total value	Resource use or information acquisition changes the future comparison.	Include the continuation under each current action.
Every objective written as a sum of immediate rewards	A terminal target or policy constraint changes meaning.	Preserve the criterion and augment the state or formulation where it needs history.
Independent worst values substituted for one fixed unknown	The calculation creates a trajectory excluded by the model.	Preserve coupling across stages or explicitly adopt the enlarged uncertainty set.
Convergence treated as decision sufficiency	A solver can converge for a representation that loses relevant history.	Identify the solved problem and evaluate the returned policy under the intended model.