There's a cliche of children asking an endless series of "Why" questions. But "The Five Whys" is a quality practice to getting to the root of a problem, originated at Toyota.
My car will not start. (the problem)
- Why? - The battery is dead. (first why)
- Why? - The alternator is not functioning. (second why)
- Why? - The alternator belt has broken. (third why)
- Why? - The alternator belt was well beyond its useful service life and has never been replaced. (fourth why)
- Why? - I have not been maintaining my car according to the recommended service schedule. (fifth why, root cause)
Note that the questioning for this example could be taken further to a sixth, seventh, or even greater level. This would be legitimate, as the five in five whys is not gospel; rather, it is postulated that five iterations of asking why is generally sufficient to get to a root cause. The real key is to encourage the troubleshooter to avoid assumptions and logic traps and instead to trace the chain of causality in direct increments from the effect through any layers of abstraction to a root cause that still has some connection to the original problem.
Kinda cool.
(via kottke)
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