Root cause analysis

Root cause analysis is a technique used in many areas of project management to determine the actual root cause (instead of the symptom) of an identified issue. It is more effective to determine the root cause of an issue and treat it than it is to treat the symptom that might reoccur if the root cause is not identified and treated. For project performance analysis, it is used to determine the root cause of an identified variance. The results of root cause ...analysis are displayed by using the cause and effect diagram, also known as the Ishikawa or fishbone diagram.

In addition to the cause and effect diagram, a popular and effective way of determining actual root cause is to apply the “five why’s” technique. This technique seeks to ask the question “why” several times to determine why a particular cause occurred to get to the absolute actual cause.