Root cause analysis is a process that helps you uncover what the original source of the problem was, not only its manifestation. The most common way to perform root cause analysis is to use the method of 5 Whys, which was made famous by the Toyota company. This method consists of peeling off all the superficial layers of the problem's manifestation to uncover the root cause hidden underneath. You do this by asking "why" at each layer until you find the root cause you are looking for.
Let's look at an example of this method in action.
The problem: We didn't get payments for some of the transactions:
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Why? The system didn't send the appropriate emails to the customers.
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Why? The email sending system doesn't support special characters in customers' names.
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Why? The email sending system wasn't tested properly.
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Why? There was no time for proper testing due to a need to develop new features.
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Why? ...
