Root Cause Analysis is a 4 step process. We need to ask 4 Questions that will summarize the RCA process:
- WHAT? The First step is to identify WHAT is the problem. If we are not clear on the problem statement, we will never be able to find the root cause. E.g. The customers have reported that they are not able to place any orders.
- WHEN? The next step is to find out WHEN the problem has happened. For our current example, when the customers were trying to place an order, they got an error message that “Orders cannot be processed”. It happened between 3.30 pm to 4 pm, and an error message comes when customers click on the place order button.
- WHY? The next step is to identify WHY the problem occurred. Based on the information identified in WHAT and WHEN, a detailed analysis takes place to identify the underlying root cause. For our current example, the underlying cause was that the payment systems were down between 3.30 pm to 4 pm. Which, in turn, interfered in placing the orders.
- HOW? The last step for Root cause analysis is to find out HOW we can ensure that the problem does not occur again. For our current example, we can ensure that there is an alert mechanism that can send emails when any of the systems are down. Displaying a message on the website that there are some issues with order placement, and the team is working to fix it, can help the users. It will ensure that there is no impact on the User experience, and the technical team gets timely alerts to correct the problem.