The Project Management Tool Kit: 100 Tips and Techniques for Getting the Job Done Right

Sources of Trouble

Cause-and-effect analysis is applied in a wide range of situations, such as:

• Risk response planning

• Process improvement

• Problem solving

• Schedule control

• Cost control

• Scope change control

• Failure diagnosis

There are many names for essentially similar processes, including root cause analysis, failure mode and effect analysis, “fishbone diagrams,” and Ishikawa charts, named for Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa, the Japanese quality movement expert who popularized the concepts.