Failure Pattern
The Compliance Blind Spot
A system gets built and deployed before anyone checks what data-handling rules actually apply to it.
What it looks like
- —Nobody can say where customer or employee data actually goes once it enters the system
- —The question 'is this compliant?' only comes up after an audit or a customer asks
- —Data retention, residency, or access-control requirements were never explicitly scoped
Why it happens
Compliance questions are unglamorous and easy to defer when the goal is shipping something that works — until 'it works' meets a requirement nobody scoped for upfront.
How to avoid it
Scope data sensitivity and compliance requirements explicitly at the start of a project, not as a follow-up question after launch — it's a design input, not an afterthought.
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