Defects, Anti-Patterns & Standards
Logic Insights checks each process for problems at three levels: structural defects that are objectively wrong, anti-patterns that are recurring bad shapes, and standards gaps measured against the frameworks your organization answers to. The first two are found deterministically from the graph. The third scores the process against tunable numeric criteria.
Design defects
Design defects are structural problems that are wrong by construction. They are detected in code, with no interpretation involved, so they are never false alarms of the "the model thinks maybe" kind.
| Defect | What it means and why it matters |
|---|---|
| Impossible SLA | The stage durations cannot fit inside the declared SLA. The process is set up to miss its target on every instance. |
| Orphan Stage | A stage that cannot be reached from the start. Dead configuration that will never execute. |
| Dead Stage | A non-terminal stage with no way out. Work that enters it gets stuck. |
| Missing Start Stage | No entry point can be identified. The process has no defined beginning. |
| Multiple Unconnected Start Stages | More than one disconnected entry point, usually a modeling mistake. |
| Cycle Without Exit | A loop with no path to a terminal stage. Instances can circle forever. |
| Duplicate Transition | Repeated transitions from the same source, which create ambiguous routing. |
| Terminal Stage with Outgoing Transition | A stage marked as terminal that still routes onward, a contradiction in the design. |
| Segregation of Duties Violation | One actor holds responsibilities that should be separated, a governance and audit risk. |
Anti-patterns
Anti-patterns are higher-level shapes that are not strictly invalid but reliably cause pain. Each is detected using a configurable threshold, so you can tune sensitivity to your own tolerance.
| Anti-pattern | What triggers it | Why it hurts |
|---|---|---|
| God Stage | One stage owns a disproportionate share of the total SLA | The whole process rises and falls with a single stage; it is your most likely bottleneck |
| Spaghetti Flow | Cyclomatic complexity above a healthy threshold | Hard to understand, hard to change safely, and defect-prone |
| Bottleneck Actor | One actor owns too large a share of the manual stages | Key-person risk; the process stalls when that person is unavailable |
| SLA Blindspot | A large portion of the process has no SLA coverage | You cannot manage what you do not measure; time leaks in the dark |
| Manual Bottleneck Island | A run of consecutive manual stages with no automation | A slow, error-prone stretch that is a prime automation target |
The thresholds for each anti-pattern are per-project settings. See Configuration & API.
Standards audit
Logic Insights scores each process Pass, Partial, or Fail against five widely used frameworks. Each framework is evaluated against numeric criteria that you can tune, so the audit reflects your organization's bar rather than a fixed opinion.
| Framework | What it checks |
|---|---|
| ISO 9001 | Responsible-actor coverage, entry and completion criteria, exception handling, and escalation paths |
| COBIT | Approval-stage ratio and control gates, applied to larger processes |
| Lean | Automation rate, rework index, and measurable completion criteria |
| Six Sigma | SLA-gap ceiling, defect-prevention criteria, and estimated sigma level |
| ITIL | Documentation coverage and problem-management stages |
Each control reports its own Pass, Partial, or Fail with the reason, and the framework rolls up to an overall status using configurable Pass and Partial thresholds. This gives compliance and audit functions a concrete, per-control answer to "does this process satisfy the standard, and where does it fall short."
Regulatory mapping and benchmarking
Beyond the five operational standards, the AI layer maps each process to the regulatory frameworks that matter to you (GDPR, SOX, ISO 9001, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, ISO 27001 by default, all configurable) and benchmarks it against industry dimensions. Both are covered in Portfolio & AI Redesign.