A question that often gets asked in one of my workshops is, “When conducting a root cause analysis, how do I know when I’ve gone far enough?” Another way to put this is when you are asking your “Why?” questions, when do you stop, since you could go on forever.
The reason this question is so commonly asked is because people are concerned about over-analyzing a problem. Everyone is under time constraints, and the thought of performing a detailed and thorough investigation seems time intensive. This doesn’t have to be the case, as you will see…
The answer that I give is not always popular: In most all cases, as soon as you have gone too far, it becomes obvious. Fortunately, this realization typically occurs as soon as you start overanalyzing, so time spent is negligible. As soon as you realize it, you can then change your focus to another aspect of the investigation.
Unsatisfied? Another guideline that I often cite is to keep asking “Why?” questions until you get into things that you have no control or influence over. After all, if you are taking the time to investigate the incident, then you are probably interested in all of the possible solutions that are available. In order to easily identify those solutions, you need to know all of the causes.
If anything, the concern that people should have when conducting a root cause analysis is the opposite, not going far enough or under analyzing the problem. Of the cause maps that I’ve reviewed in my time, the most common error that is made is NOT asking too many “Why?” questions, it’s not asking enough of them.
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