Diagrams
Fishbone diagram template
Root cause analysis: the problem at the head, possible causes grouped along the bones.
What it is
A fishbone diagram is a tool for finding the root cause of a problem. It is also called an Ishikawa diagram, after Kaoru Ishikawa, who made it popular in quality control. The problem sits at the head of the fish. Each bone is a category of possible causes, like people, process or tools, and collects the causes you find.
When to use it
- After an incident or a quality problem that keeps coming back
- When the team has jumped to one cause and you want to check the others
- In a post-mortem, before you decide what to fix
How to run it
- 01
State the problem
Write it in the head as an effect you can measure, like "Orders arrive late".
- 02
Pick the categories
Choose four to six bones that fit your work. Factories often use people, methods, machines, materials, measurement and environment.
- 03
Add causes
For each bone, ask why the problem happens and add a note per cause. Ask why again to go one level deeper.
- 04
Choose what to check
Circle the two or three causes the team thinks matter most, and collect data on them before you fix anything.
Opens a new board from this prompt:
"Fishbone diagram for why a mobile app's crash rate doubled after the last release"
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