A method for operating a programmable IC is disclosed. A set of circuits specified by a set of configuration data is operated in a set of programmable resources. In response to one of a set of status signals indicating an error, a value indicative of an error is stored in a respective one of a plurality of error status registers. The values stored in the plurality of error status registers are provided to an error handling circuit included in the set of circuits specified by the set of configuration data and operated in the programmable resources. At least one error handling process is performed by the error handling circuit as a function of values stored in the plurality of error status registers.