Professional Documents
Culture Documents
+
18.0 Root Cause Analysis
Root Cause Analysis is the method of problem solving that
identifies the root causes of failures or problems. A root cause is
the source of a problem and its resulting symptom, that once
removed, corrects or prevents an undesirable outcome from
recurring.
Problem:
§ Test coverage insufficient the detect latent bugs in software
§ We commit before understanding the consequences
Root Cause:
§ No software structure to determine test coverage or change
impacts on baseline.
§ No detailed understanding of our capacity for work and
productivity of our technical staff
Assessment
Unanticipated
models.
Cost and
Schedule
Inadequate assessment of risk and
Growth
unmitigated exposure to these risks
without proper handling plans.
Analysis
n Principles of Root Cause Analysis
Solving
n Every Problem in our lives
has three basic elements
Action
connected through Cause
causality.
causes:
Condition
n An Action Cause
n A Condition
+
Ignorance is a most wonderful thing.
It facilitates magic.
It allows the masses to be led.
18.1 Beyond the
Conventional It provides answers when there are none.
Wisdom of It allows happiness in the presence of
danger.
Problem
Solving All this, while the pursuit of knowledge
can only destroy the illusion. It is any
The common approach to problem
solving is to categorize causes or wonder mankind chooses ignorance?
identify causal factors and look for
root causes within the categories.
Categorization schemes do not reveal Original Quote from George Bernard
the cause and effect relationships Shaw
needed to find effective solutions.
It is the effective solution we are after. In Apollo Root Cause Analysis: Effective
Solutions to Everyday Problems, Every
Time, Dean L. Gano
Cause Analysis†
§2.4.5.1 Event Management – is the process that monitors all events
that occur through the IT infrastructure to allow for normal operation
and also to detect and escalate exception conditions.
Analysis
n Use RCA When … n Do Not Use RCA …
n Direct causes often result from another set of causes, which could be
called intermediate causes, and these may be the result of still other
causes.
n The process used to find root causes is called root cause analysis ---
systematic problem solving.
+ 855
Five Whys involves holding meetings immediately – in our case the Friday
immediately following the release.
The problems can be anything – development mistakes, infrastructure
performance issues, process failures, or even internal missed schedules.
Any time something unexpected happens, we start the root cause analysis
with the 5 Ways in the domain from the chart above.
Five Whys
n What evidence is there that this cause exists?
n Is it concrete?
n Is it measurable?
n What evidence is there that this cause could lead to the observed effect?
n Are we merely asserting causation?
n What evidence is there that this cause actually contributed to the problem?
n Even given that it exists and could lead to this problem, how do we know it wasn't
actually something else?
n Is anything else needed, along with this cause, for the stated effect to occur?
n Is it self-sufficient?
n Is something needed to help it along?
n Can anything else, besides this cause, lead to the stated effect?
n Are there alternative explanations that fit better?
n What other risks are there?
Stories seldom identify causes because they are busy setting the stage for
who was where and when some action occurred.
A story is a sequence of events starting in the past, leading to the
consequences disguised as a root cause 861
Performance–Based Project Management®, Copyright © Glen B. Alleman, 2002 ― 2016
18. Root Cause
Analysis Approach
n Story telling describes an event by relating people (who), places
(where), and things (what) in a linear time frame (when).
n Stories start with the past – we saw this happen and something else
happened after that, and then something else happened…
n Causal relationships leading to the Root Cause start with the present
and work backwards to the causes – both Activities and Conditions of
this cause.
n Stories are linear – they come from the minds of the story tellers,
usually as a linear time line.
n The linear understanding of an event in a time sequence from past to
present, ignores the cause–and–effect principle.
n Since we do not understand the branched causes, we use our own
understanding of cause rather than the actual causal connections.
n This approach separates story telling from the Primary Effect, and
the cause–effect chain leading to the Primary Effect.
Thinking
n We need to put order to the things we perceive.
n The notion of good and bad is categorical thinking at its base level.
Thinking
n When interacting with others, we assume there is a single reality
and therefore their categories are like ours.
n What evidence is there that this cause could lead to the observed effects?
n Are we merely asserting causation without evidence?
n What evidence is there that this cause actually contributed to the Primary
Effect?
n Even given that it exists and could lead to this problem, how do we know it wasn't actually
something else?
n Is anything else needed, along with this cause, for the stated effect to occur?
n Is it self–sufficient?
n Is something needed to help it along?
n Can anything else, besides this cause, lead to the stated effect?
n Are there alternative explanations that fit better?
n What other risks are there?
Performance–Based Project Management®, Copyright © Glen B. Alleman, 2002 ― 2016
18. Root Cause
871
Map
For each Primary Effect we need ask why that Effect
occurred.
n Causes are never part of a Linear Chain found in standard Fishbone
diagram or narrative approach.
n Look for causes to create the effect. Two causes are needed for each
Effect.
n Conditions – may exist prior to the Effect. Or conditions may be in motion or
active during the Effect. Conditions are the causes often ignored or beyond our
knowledge.
n Actions – momentary causes that bring conditions together to cause an effect.
Actions are causes most easily recognized.
n Each effect has at least two causes in the form of actions and
conditions.
n This is the most important and overlooked principle of causation.
n Unlike storytelling used to capture the Fishbone style charts, which
focuses on linear action causes, reality demands that each effect have at
least one action cause and one or more conditional causes.
Thing
Effects Cause
Injury Caused by Fall
Fall Caused by Slipped
Slipped Caused by Wet Surface
Wet Surface Caused by Leaky Faucet
Leaky Faucet Caused By Seal Failure
Seal Failure Caused by Not Maintained
n The cause of one thing becomes the effect when you ask why.
n The cause of the “Injury” was a “Fall”, and when you ask why “Fall”,
it changes to an effect and the cause is “Slipped.”
Process
n Like a string of dominos, asking why in the conventional Five Whys
method assumes, A caused B, B caused C, and C caused D.
Method
n Cause and Effect are the same thing.
n If we look closely at cause and effect, we see that a “cause” and an
“effect” are the same thing.
n A single thing may be both a cause and an effect.
n They differ only by how we perceive them in time.
n Each Effect has at least two causes in the form of Actions and
Conditions.
n This is the most important and overlooked principle of causation.
n Unlike storytelling used to capture the Fishbone style charts, which
focuses on linear action causes, reality demands that each effect have at
least one action cause and one or more conditional causes.
n An Effect exists only if its causes exist in the same space and time
frame.
Performance–Based Project Management®, Copyright © Glen B. Alleman, 2002 ― 2016
18. Root Cause
Thing
Effect Caused by Action or Condition
Injury Caused by Fall
Fall Caused by Slip
Slip Caused by Wet Surface
Wet Surface Caused by Leaky Faucet
Leaky Faucet Caused By Seal Failure
Seal Failure Caused by Seal Not Maintained
n The cause of one thing becomes the effect when you connect
caused by.
n The cause of the “Injury” was a “Fall”, and when you ask why “Fall”,
it changes to an effect and the cause is “Slip.”
n This relationship continues as long as we continue to ask why.
Performance–Based Project Management®, Copyright © Glen B. Alleman, 2002 ― 2016
18. Root Cause
Why?
Action Cause?
Condition Cause?
Without following the Why’s to the terminal node with Action and Condition,
the actual Root Cause is still buried in the narrative, waiting to reoccur
Performance–Based Project Management®, Copyright © Glen B. Alleman, 2002 ― 2016
18. Root Cause
+ 894
+
n Critical Elements
n Infrastructure
http://www.realitycharting.com/training/problemsolvingculture/plan
+ Infrastructure 900
n A Program Champion.
n Training
n Familiar with RCA concepts
n Familiar with Apollo method
n User of reality Charting®
n Role
n The Go To persons for all things RCA
n Effectively facilitate incident investigations
+ Integration 904
+ Deployment 906
Actions
n Finding the Root Cause is just the start.
Analysis
n Events have two contributors ‒ the condition and the action. Both must be found
before root cause can be determined for the primary effect.
n There is an endless chain of cause and effect, stopping too early is a common
failure mode of Root Cause Analysis
n Formal Root Cause Analysis processes and tools provide information not
available with the narrative approach
n Without determining the Root Cause and suggested solution just address the
symptoms. This approach does not remove the cause and allows the symptoms
to recur in a loop of fix, break, fix.