rca-classical-methods

From the author

Classical root cause analysis techniques for quality improvement and incident investigation. Covers 5 Whys (with Card's 2017 critique and boundary conditions), Ishikawa/fishbone diagrams, Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), Cause Mapping, and Doggett's method-selection framework. Use when investigating a failure, running a post-incident analysis, building a fishbone, calculating fault tree cut sets, running an FMEA pass, or deciding which classical technique fits the problem. Not suitable alone for complex socio-technical failures — escalate to rca-systems-theoretic or rca-causal-inference when the incident has multiple interacting causal chains.