What holds a rota
Every rota is the output of constraints. The four kinds, who imposed each, and the one nobody can name.
The Four Kinds of Constraint
The four kinds of constraint that fix a rota in place, how to tell them apart in practice, and why treating all four as the first kind is the normal case.
The Constraint Nobody Can Name
What to do with a rule everybody follows and nobody can source, why it is the most common kind, and the single question that usually resolves it.
Who Imposed This, and Are They Still Here
Why the author of a constraint matters more than its wording, how to find one, and what to do when the author has left and the rule has not.
Written Down, Said Once, or Just Assumed
The three states a rota rule can be in, why the middle one causes most of the trouble, and how to move a rule from one state to another without losing it.
What a Constraint Costs to Keep
Why every constraint has a price even when it is free to obey, how to work out what one costs, and what to do with the number once you have it.
The List Nobody Has Written
How to build a constraint register for a rota in an afternoon, what belongs on it, and why it has to live beside the rota.
Where the Rota Actually Gets Decided
Why the real decisions sit upstream of the rota, which four of them determine most of what a pattern can be, and when it is too late to change them.