The Root Cause Piece of Project Management

Root cause analysis provides the project manager with multiple tools to analyze realized risks and unplanned issues that present themselves throughout the life of the project. With quality as the focus, finding the effects, root cause, correlations, etc. takes dedicated teamwork and digging into the weeds. These initiatives should all lead to finding a more efficient and sustainable process that can lead to a higher level of success for not only the deliverable, but for the internal stakeholders performing the work.

Successful root cause analysis starts with effective communication that is defined during the kickoff phase of the project. The project manager should have an initial set of risks listed out along with the potential of unknown unknowns that may occur and should gather input from the team on the most efficient way to address. Team members should be given the freedom to utilize whatever analysis tool they feel is best for solving the problems as they may have a specific preference due to the value provided within the results.

Any type of issue that arises should require a team lead meeting in whatever format works best and discuss the issue and degree of impact it will have to the project. The main goal of this meeting is to identify the actual problem or problems as there may be multiple. How the problem occurred and was found out along with what path forward the team needs to take will come secondary.

Documentation of the problem should start at this first step and should continue throughout the life of the analysis.

After the problem has been identified, the process of digging into what occurred and how to solve the problem in a sustainable manner can begin. Each critical team member should provide input from their own understanding and experience to provide insight on how to approach the problem. The problem can be discovered at any point in time within the project’s start to finish timeline and within any department.

During this entire process from start to finish, the main thing to keep in front of everyone’s mind is to only find the Why and understand What Happened within the process. Leave the Who out as finger pointing will only slow down the improvement process and create a whole other level of issues that distract you from delivering a high-quality product/service.

Chances are that each problem within the project will be unique, but the documentation side of how the team approached the understanding of the impact of the problem will help with the process when future problems arise. After the problem has been resolved and the project is back on track, follow up on the improved process to ensure all aspects have been captured and all problem statements have been answered.

Below are types of root cause analysis tools that can assist your project:

1.???? Ishikawa Fishbone Diagram

The Ishikawa Fishbone tool looks at the top-level problem, then breaks out lines like fishbones for the possible causes that leads to the ultimate effect. Typically, you would utilize this tool when there are no known root causes identified. Multiple team members should be involved in this process to get wider range of input from the issues identified.

2.???? Five Whys

Five Whys is a tool to dig deeper into the issues. Five is an arbitrary number, but the question should be asked enough times to find the possible resolution to the problem. This method may be combined with other tools presented here, but the key point is to keep asking questions to understand any underlying issues.

3.???? Pareto Charts

?Pareto charts are typical bar graphs that indicate the areas that require your primary attention. The bars on the chart stands for frequency, time, or money. They are also arranged from the highest to the lowest of importance as they move from left to right on the chart.

4.???? DMAIC Template

DMAIC is an acronym that stands for:

D – Define. This step requires the team to look for the problem and set a definition on what is to be resolved.

M – Measure. This step can utilize other tools to track and measure data points that require rework or improvement.

A – Analyze. This step allows you to analyze any underlying issues that may be prevented in the future.

I – Improve. This step allows you to act and create an improvement initiative that should lead to beneficial changes within the process.

C – Control. This last step allows you perform quality control measurements and ensure that all improvements can be sustained within the future of the program.

5.???? Scatter Diagram

?A scatter diagram measures the points of two data sets and their relationships. You can find a correlation among the two data points when a line or curve is plotted.

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