Root Cause Analysis — Introduction & Fundamentals

Science is organised knowledge. By Herbert Spencer

Science is the knowledge of many, orderly and methodically digested and arranged, so as to become attainable by one. The knowledge of reasons and their conclusions constitutes abstract, that of causes and their effects, and of the laws of nature, natural science. By By Sir John Herschel

Before starting with RCA, let start first what is problem/defect/bug. We can say, when system is not working as expected (not producing desired outcome), there is a problem.

Problem solving, is the method to make system to produce desired/expected outcome. To do this, we need to understand following things –

Psychology behind RCA

Problem Solving key terms — Science is a systematically organised body of knowledge. Scientist is the person who is building that organised knowledge. Problem solving is also a way to organise knowledge systematically. For working on RCA Problem, you need to understand system, problem, find cause, come up with conclusion and solution etc So we can say, you are scientist if you are working on a problem solving task.

Note — Do not restrict or de-motivate yourself with the kind of problem (bigger or lower), all problem has equal importance. See things as it is.

• Perception — See things clearly. Just you have system, accessing website, but internet is not working. It is clear via seeing from system.
• Inference — That which is deduced from prior perception. While working with system, you have knowledge of that and you understand some of the pattern of system. Based on that you can easily identify the cause of issue.

• Analogy (Comparison) — A thing derived from its similarity to another thing already well known. This is comparison with other system and understand the problem and its cause.
• Verbal Testimony — Saying of reliable person — This is an expert and having sound knowledge of system.
• Doubt — If we have conflict with two or more conclusion, then doubt arise which guide us to avoid wrong path while problem solving.
• Purpose/Goal — We should have purpose in our mind. If we are not clear about problem, we can say, we do not have clear goal.
• Example — We should be able to put some well-known example similar to problem or solution
• Conclusion — There should be well proven conclusion.
• Debate/Discussion — The removal of doubts, and the resolution of a dispute, by examining two opposite views.

Problem Solving strategies — we have some of the well proven problem solving strategies -

Root cause analysis techniques — You can see above, Root cause analysis is a strategy for solving a problem. Again we have some of the well-known techniques which can be used for RCA.

Let discuss theory of causation and inferences -

Theory of Causation (cause and effect) — Here I want to explain little bit about causation theory. This is very old and most popular. This is one theory which is used by scientist, philosophers or even theologian.

“Let me explain you in simple words, what is this. We have seen tree, if anyone ask you, what is the cause of tree, you will say “seed” immediately. Now tree is an effect of seed, and seed is cause of tree. Next, we can say, tree exist inside seed, means effect already exist insider cause. Can we say, effect (tree) is the manifestation of cause (seed). Again, along with seed, we need fertile soil, supported atmosphere etc for making seed as tree. These are conditions which leads cause (seed) to manifest as effect (tree).”

Next, think about plant, plant is the before stage of becoming tree, so we can say plant can also be cause of tree, but not final or real. Seed is the real cause of tree.

So we will start out investigation using cause and effect perspective with valid reasoning, we will final reach to root cause of problem.

In the context of system, if we have some problem, there should be a cause of this along with some supported conditions. So we need to find cause and supported conditions also so that we can fix problem completely.

Theory of Inference

This is also one of the famous way for problem solving. The word infer means to “carry forward”,

Inferences are steps in reasoning, moving from premises to logical consequences. We have basically two kind of inferences –

1. Inductive — We start with observations, then analyse pattern, then infer a theory — (Observations to Hypothesis). Ex — For a given problem, observe some of the facts or phenomena into system, then try to come up with theory or conclusion.
2. Deductive — We make a general statement or hypothesis, then find observations which can be used to prove hypothesis — (Go from hypothesis to Observations). Ex- For a given problem, based on prior knowledge, put a hypothesis, then start to prove that hypothesis via observations of behaviour or facts about system.

Ref- https://danielmiessler.com/blog/the-difference-between-deductive-and-inductive-reasoning/

Few Images Ref — google images