Systematic Debugging Framework

Debugging fails when developers implement the first change that seems related to the symptom without verifying it's actually the cause. This produces fixes that mask symptoms while the root cause persists, regressions from changes made to the wrong component, and increasing system complexity from workaround accumulation. Systematic debugging treats every bug as a hypothesis to be tested — forming a specific, falsifiable explanation and designing the smallest experiment that could disprove it.

The Systematic Debugging Framework applies the scientific method to bug diagnosis: observe, hypothesize, experiment, conclude — with the specific techniques that make each step rigorous.