one other useful thing to point out. It can often be harder to implement robustness at the bottom of your call chain. You may need to step up a layer. user_met

one other useful thing to point out. It can often be harder to implement robustness at the bottom of your call chain. You may need to step up a layer. user_method() call_to_get_info_from_remote_system() Just because call_to_get_info_from_remote_system fails doesn't mean you have to be done. user_method(tries) while i < tries if call_to_get_info_from_remote_system() == FAIL # log error if check_remote_system_reachable() # fatal error be done i++ granted this makes all kinds of assumptions like you can afford to retry this operation up to N times. It also may break the rule of "Stupidity"