What is Failfast? — UK Software Development Guide
Direct Answer
Fail fast is a software design and development principle where systems detect and report failures as early as possible, rather than continuing to process with incorrect state. In design: a function should throw an error immediately when it receives invalid input rather than propagating bad data through the system. In startup methodology (Eric Ries): test assumptions quickly and accept negative results early rather than investing heavily in an unproven idea.
Failfast in the UK
Fail fast has UK software compliance implications. In financial software (FCA regulated): failing fast on invalid payment data (rather than propagating corrupt data to BACS clearing) prevents regulatory incidents. In NHS clinical software: failing fast on invalid FHIR R4 patient identifiers prevents mismatch between digital records and physical patients — a clinical safety risk. In MVP development: the "fail fast" startup methodology applied to UK Innovate UK grant projects means validating the core technical uncertainty early (typically in a spike) before committing development budget to an approach that may not work.
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