RATIONALE "Brown, FH" D. C. Brown, Failure Handling in a Design Expert System. Computer-Aided Design, Butterworths, Nov. 1985. This paper introduces the concept of "failure" in a routine design system, as being caused by a violated constraint or by some knowledge-based activity not being able to complete successfully. Failures are recognized by "failure handlers" and then dealt with by associated "redesigners" that take appropriate action, such as increasing or decreasing a parameter's value. Changes are made one at a time. Backtracking is kept local to the failure as much as possible by following "suggestions" from the places in the system that failed. The system also raises the issue of how much to "mimic" people when building design systems, as opposed to using techniques that people would not be able to manage.