Cause and Effect Diagram

Intro

A Cause and Effect Diagram (Ishikawa or fishbone) helps find root causes of a problem. It matters in EA and BPM to fix issues at source.

Key points:

• Visual, collaborative root cause analysis
• Separates symptoms from causes
• Used in process improvement, data quality, and incident reviews
• Pitfall: stopping at first-level causes without validation

Examples:

• Investigating late order deliveries across process and systems
• Tracing data mismatches to upstream entry errors
• Analysing outage causes across people, process, and technology

In practice:

Run sessions with cross‑functional SMEs; validate causes with data before acting.

Related terms: Root Cause Analysis; Continuous Improvement; Kaizen

FAQs:

Q: Do we need specialised tools?
A: No, a whiteboard or basic diagramming works.

Q: How many categories should we use?
A: Use standard ones (e.g., people, process, tech) and adapt as needed.

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