Overview
RCA goes beyond fixing the immediate symptoms of an issue. It seeks to understand why the failure happened at a fundamental level, whether it was a technical bug, a process failure, or a human error.
Common Techniques
- The 5 Whys: Repeatedly asking 'Why?' to peel away layers of symptoms.
- Fishbone Diagram (Ishikawa): Categorizing potential causes into groups like People, Process, and Technology.
- Fault Tree Analysis: A top-down approach to identifying all possible paths to a failure.
Outcome
The result of an RCA is typically a set of 'Corrective Actions' designed to eliminate the root cause and improve the overall resilience of the system.