When an incident disrupts operations, the immediate response is often to solve the problem and move on with business as usual as soon as possible. However, focusing only on a quick fix can leave underlying causes unresolved. And when that happens, similar incidents are more likely to recur.
That’s where root cause analysis (RCA) becomes valuable. It helps organizations understand, not simply how to fix a problem, but why the problem exists.
Key Takeaways
- Root cause analysis (RCA) identifies the underlying causes of problems, which prevents similar incidents from recurring.
- RCA helps organizations mitigate risks by revealing hidden vulnerabilities within their processes.
- Common methods for RCA include the 5 Whys, Fishbone Diagram, and Fault Tree Analysis.
- Key steps in RCA involve clearly defining the problem, identifying causes, implementing solutions, and monitoring their effectiveness.
- Utilizing technology like Onspring can streamline RCA processes, ensuring faster and more efficient problem-solving.
Table of Contents
What Is Root Cause Analysis?
Root cause analysis is the process of identifying the underlying cause of a problem so you can determine the right solution and preventative measures. RCA involves asking “Why did this happen?” until you find out the true sources of an issue.
For example, if customers are canceling their software-as-a-service subscriptions, a quick fix might be to offer discounts on long-term plans. But that doesn’t address why customers are leaving. Using root cause analysis, the company can dig deeper:
- Why are customers leaving? Most say the software crashes frequently.
- Why is the software crashing? The latest update had bugs.
- Why didn’t the quality management team catch the bugs? The team was short on time.
- Why was the team rushed? The project manager moved up the launch dates.
- Why was the launch date moved up? Management pressure to meet revenue targets.
The root cause: Management pressure to meet sales targets led to rushed work, which resulted in glitchy software and many customers canceling their plans.
Why Root Cause Analysis Matters in Organizations
The RCA helps you address a problem at the source, rather than simply treating its symptoms. Here’s why that matters for your organization.
Prevents Recurring Incidents
Because root cause analysis reveals why an incident occurred, you can identify long-lasting solutions. That way, you prevent the incident from happening again or significantly reduce the likelihood of recurrence.
Enables Risk Identification, Assessment and Mitigation
Apart from determining problems that already exist and preventing them from resurfacing, RCA can reveal hidden risks that might cause future disruptions, such as weaknesses in business processes, systems and communication procedures.
Once you identify risks that would otherwise be difficult to see, you can assess their chances of happening and perform an impact analysis. You can then use these insights to prioritize mitigation strategies, supporting a culture of continuous improvement across processes and systems..
Supports Compliance Investigations
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other regulators require organizations to thoroughly investigate incidents, such as cyberattacks. Root cause analysis helps you show regulatory bodies what happened, why it occurred, and what solutions you took to prevent similar incidents in the future.
Reduces Costs
When systems fail or software issues cause delays, businesses lose money. Downtime costs large organizations an average of $540,000 per hour, according to a global report by Splunk.
If the same issue causes downtime frequently, those losses can quickly add up. By preventing recurring incidents, root cause analysis protects organizations from bearing the cost of the same failure multiple times. In other words, fixing the root cause prevents wasting money on incidents you could have prevented, or at least reduced their severity and frequency.
Promotes Continuous Improvement
One key step in root cause analysis is tracking performance and optimizing the effectiveness of corrective actions over time. In return, organizations learn from each incident and use the insights to improve processes continuously.
Common RCA Methods
To apply root cause analysis effectively, you need to choose a technique to guide the investigation process. There are several popular RCA approaches you can use.
5 Whys
After identifying a problem and its symptoms, you repeatedly ask “Why did this happen?” until you reach the underlying cause. It usually takes around five rounds of questioning, which is how the 5 Whys method gets its name.
Fishbone Diagram
The fishbone diagram, also known as the Ishikawa or cause and effect diagram, helps teams visually map out the possible causes of a problem.
You start by writing the problem at the end of a horizontal line. Then add main branches coming off the horizontal line, each representing a major category of potential contributing factors. After that, smaller lines off the main branches show specific underlying causes. You’ll end up with a diagram that looks like a fishbone, which explains the name of the technique.
Fault Tree Analysis
With fault tree analysis, you break down the actual cause of a failure into underlying contributing factors. The fault tree diagram then graphically represents the relationships between the root causes.
Pareto Chart
A Pareto chart visualizes root causes using:
- Bar chart: Bars represent how frequently a series of causes occur in descending order, starting with the most common.
- Line chart: The line graph shows how the root causes combine (as percentages) to make up the total problem as you move across the chart.
Once you choose a suitable root cause analysis technique, you don’t have to apply it manually. Risk and incident management platforms, such as Onspring, can automate RCA methodologies.
Key Steps in the Root Cause Analysis Process
No matter the RCA method you choose, the basic steps for conducting root cause analysis are the same. You can carry out the analysis to investigate human errors, equipment failures, management issues and any other problem-causing factors.
1. Define the Problem Clearly
In one or two sentences and in simple terms, describe the issue you’re trying to solve along with its observable symptoms. Without a clear problem definition, it’s impossible to identify the root causes accurately.
Data collection, such as incident reports and interviews with affected parties, provides the information you need to define the problem.
2. Identify Underlying Causes
A problem rarely has a single root cause. In this step, think of multiple possible causes and determine which ones best explain why the issue occurs and persists. How you’ll visualize and analyze your findings depends on the RCA method you use.
One best practice when identifying underlying causes is to look at internal factors that contribute to the problem. Focusing solely on external factors can miss many useful insights.
3. Create a Plan and Implement Corrective Actions
Determine what you must do to deal with the underlying causes and solve the problem you identified. Once you ascertain the actions to take, plan how you’ll implement them. What financial and technological resources will you need?
On top of that, identify the people responsible for enacting the solutions. Team members should know who will do what and by when, so everyone is on the same page during implementation.
4. Monitor Performance and Optimize Your Solutions
After taking corrective actions, check whether they are eliminating the root causes and solving the problem at hand. When tracking your solutions’ performance, you might discover new problems or miss implementation targets. Use this information to develop a more effective action plan, reinforcing continuous improvement as part of your ongoing RCA efforts.
How Risk, Compliance and Incident Management Technology Improves Root Cause Analysis
Conducting root cause analysis manually can be time-consuming and hectic. Powerful technology such as Onspring simplifies and speeds up the process. Here’s how:
- Provides a centralized platform for tracking incidents and risks, so teams can easily access relevant data for identifying problems and their symptoms
- Automates RCA methodologies so organizations can apply investigation techniques consistently and find root causes quickly
- Allows teams to monitor incident status or risk posture in real time, ensuring business leaders make decisions based on up-to-date information
- Centralizes communication and collaboration among teams affected by the same incident so they can easily solve the problem together
To determine whether an incident and risk analysis solution suits your organization, test it out before deploying it. See how Onspring streamlines root cause analysis, and request a demo today.
