root-cause-diagnosis

To stop shotgun debugging, you need a systematic root cause analysis process that enforces evidence gathering and code tracing before proposing fixes. This ensures the actual problem is identified and resolved rather than just treating symptoms.

The best way to investigate a persistent integration test failure is to follow a structured four-phase process: Capture error outputs, Investigate code execution, Hypothesize spec violations, and Prescribe actionable fixes to prevent regressions.

You can identify spec drift during troubleshooting by cross-referencing error outputs and code execution paths against constitutional context files. This highlights where the implementation violates the original specification.

The mandatory phases for systematic root cause analysis are Capture, Investigate, Hypothesize, and Prescribe. This structured approach ensures fixes are evidence-based and actionable rather than speculative guesses.

An integration test keeps failing after fixes because the root cause was likely never addressed. Without evidence-based investigation and code tracing to identify spec violations, shotgun debugging only masks the underlying software failure.