A management reporting approach that highlights only significant deviations from normal operations, expected results, or established thresholds, rather than providing comprehensive status updates. It focuses attention on items that require management intervention or decision-making.
Combines 'exception' from Latin 'excipere' (to take out, exclude) with 'reporting' from Old French 'reporter' (to carry back). The management concept developed in the 1950s-60s as information systems evolved to help executives focus on critical issues rather than routine operational details.
Exception reporting is the ultimate management attention hack - it assumes that no news is good news! The challenge is setting the right thresholds: too sensitive and you get overwhelmed with false alarms, too loose and you miss important signals. The best systems learn and adapt their sensitivity based on what actually matters to business outcomes.
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