Three and a half Roses

5 whys to get to the root cau

Another interesting technique is the 5 why’s.  Many know this techniques from their children. 

  • Child: why does so and so happen? 
  • You: oh because of this and that…
  • Child: Yes, but why then this?
  • You again: well, because …
  • and so on and so on

Though sometimes it can be frustrating to have to keep on finding answers to the incessant stream of whys it is a surprisingly simple way of getting to the bottom of an issue rapidly…

The technique was developed by Sakichi Toyoda and was used within the Toyota Motor Corporation.  

Why 5 whys?  Because it generally gets you to the bottom of things, and if at times it doesn’t get you there feel free to continue asking why until you do 😉

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Patrice

As an experienced enterprise architect with a deep-rooted passion for cloud, AI, and architectural design, I’ve guided numerous companies through the management of their existing application landscapes and facilitated their transition to a future state. If you wish to contact me drop me a note at patrice at threeandahalfroses dot com. Or, via skype (patrizz) or twitter (patrizz).

One response to “5 whys to get to the root cau”

  1. Fishbone Diagrams | Three and a half Roses

    […] diagram, aka the Fishbone diagram because of its shape.  It is a more structured way than just asking yourself why 5 times. You can use this in team to flesh out the reasons behind a problem in front of a whiteboard or you […]

    Reply

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About Me

As an experienced enterprise architect with a deep-rooted passion for cloud, AI, and architectural design, I’ve guided numerous companies through the management of their existing application landscapes and facilitated their transition to a future state.

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