Stovepipe system

In engineering and computing, a stovepipe system is a legacy system which cannot be upgraded or refactored and which must be built around until it can be replaced entirely.

Examples of stovepipe systems:

• Systems for which new hardware is no longer available.
• Systems whose original source code has been lost.
• Systems that were built using old or ad hoc engineering methodologies for which support can no longer be found.

The term is also used to describe a system that does not interoperate with other systems, presuming instead that it is the only extant system.

A stovepipe system is an example of an anti-pattern.

See also

• Legacy system