What would it take for instructional design to qualify as a bona fide applied discipline? First and foremost, a fundamental requirement is a testable and tested theoretical base. Untested rationales until verified remain in limbo. Secondly, the discipline's applied prescriptions must be demonstrably traceable to the theoretical base once it is verified. It goes without saying, and thirdly, the detailed technology which the discipline ultimately produces must itself also be testable and tested. A predictive theory and empirically supported prescriptions are both key. It will come as no surprise that there are several ways in which instructional design falls short of that mark. Some well-known and lesser-known problem areas account for that current status. They include substantive and methodological omissions and commissions as co-conspirators. There are some well-known and some lesser-known remedies for dealing with them. Upshot: Design models "not" based on empirically grounded principles, however persuasive their foundational rationales, are only operating in trial-and- error mode. Any applied technology to be considered dependably ready for everyday use has to have moved past that stage.