GOVERNANCE ARCHITECTURE
Compound Failure Path
How Risk Propagates Across Governance Domain Boundaries
By Lenna Thompson · The Governance Desk
DEFINITION
A Compound Failure Path is the specific route through which a risk event in one governance domain propagates across domain boundaries to create enterprise-level impact. It traces how a single-domain finding becomes a multi-domain failure when the architectural connections between domains are absent.
When a risk event crosses governance domain boundaries, it follows a compound failure path. A data lineage issue becomes a model risk problem becomes a regulatory exposure becomes a customer impact. Each step crosses a domain boundary. Each crossing represents a point where the governance architecture either routes the signal or allows it to propagate undetected.
Compound failure paths are predefined within Cross-Domain Risk Objects. Each object includes the specific failure paths that cut across domain boundaries - the routes through which a single-domain event can become a multi-domain failure. These paths are named, documented, and assigned to owners before an incident forces the question.
Without predefined compound failure paths, organizations discover them during incidents. The failure propagates across domains. Teams scramble to understand the connections. Accountability is improvised. The governance architecture reveals its gaps under pressure rather than by design.
Mapping compound failure paths is a core function of intersection mapping and a prerequisite for the accountability structures that ClarityOS defines.
Full content for this concept page is forthcoming. The definition and overview above reflect the term as used across The Governance Desk.
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