Facilitated by Ade G.

Many Agile teams rely solely on the “5 Whys” when investigating issues, but more powerful and structured techniques exist. Join our July session, “Agile Root Cause Analysis: Practical Tools Beyond the 5 Whys,” to explore advanced, collaborative tools that dive deeper, uncover systemic issues, and drive meaningful improvement.

1. Moving Past the 5 Whys,

The 5 Whys technique is simple, it asks “why” until the root cause surfaces.

However, it can miss complex, layered problems. We’ll introduce refined methods like 5 So What?, which probes for impact, and orthogonal defect classification (ODC) to analyze software faults quantitatively.

2. Fishbone (Ishikawa) Diagram for Team Insight,

The Fishbone diagram visually maps out cause-and-effect, helping teams group causes into categories, like People, Process, Tools, and Environment, for structured brainstorming.

In retrospectives, this tool uncovers clusters of contributing factors and turns insights into targeted action items.

3. Failure Mode & Effects Analysis (FMEA) & Fault Trees,

FMEA systematically lists potential failure modes, their effects, and severity ratings, helping Agile teams track risk and prioritize preventative actions.

Combined with fault tree analysis, this creates visual models of how multiple conditions can combine to cause failures.

4. Advanced, Data-Driven Approaches,

For teams working in tech- or data-heavy environments:

• ODC categorizes defects to reveal patterns and process health over time.

• Event-graph RCA frameworks like TraceDiag build causal graphs across microservices to pinpoint triggers of production issues.
• Automated RCA tools like Warwick’s RCASE attempt causal discovery in large-scale datasets, ideal for operations-heavy environments.

5. Event Highlights,

• Interactive Workshops, dig into Fishbone, FMEA, and fault tree tools.

• Tool Showcase, try PyRCA, ODC dashboards, and open-source RCA libraries.

• Case Studies, featuring teams who uncovered systemic causes via advanced techniques.

• Facilitated Group Exercise, collaboratively diagnose a real-world sprint failure using multiple tools.

Take your retrospectives to the next level.

Register today for “Agile Root Cause Analysis” in July 2025 and learn how to diagnose deeper, resolve smarter, and strengthen your Agile delivery.