Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
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Cultural: The relationship between events (A) and (B) is a cultural relation-
ship such that the relationship exists in a particular culture or society, but
not another.
Convention: The relationship between (A) and (B) is one of convention
or social expectation; there is no cause and effect outside the conventional
expectation for the fulfillment of the relationship.
Conditioned: The cause and effect is not a natural occurrence, but one that is
conditioned, e.g., Pavlov's dog (B) salivates at the ring of a bell (A).
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The need for an RCA presumes the occurrence of an undesirable event and the
need to determine the cause of that event. The purpose of the RCA is to identify
the
root cause
of that undesirable event. The RCA examines incident details, deter-
mines the facts surrounding the incident, and distinguishes the causal events and
circumstances versus other types of event relations that may be more symptomatic
or even unrelated despite appearances. The RCA results provide feedback to the
organization to reduce or eliminate the likelihood of incident recurrence. If event
recurrence cannot be eliminated with certainty, at the least the RCA contributes to
reducing the effect of any recurrence on the organization.
Root Cause Analysis (RCA) Methodology
The root cause methodology consists of the following processes:
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Discovery
Analysis
Reporting
Resolution
The discovery process consists of a series of interviews, phone conferences, and
documentation to discern the details of the incident and details surrounding the
incident that may have contributed to incident occurrence. The analysis process
evaluates the details and makes conclusions regarding event relations. The analysis
may or may not identify a root cause with 100 percent certainty. The reporting
process consists of presenting the details of the analysis. This template provides
one template for RCA reporting. The resolution process consists of organizational
feedback to reduce or eliminate the potential for incident recurrence.
