Root Cause Analysis
Proven troubleshooting technique
Core Concept
Root cause analysis (RCA) is a proven troubleshooting technique used by software development teams to identify and resolve problems at their core, rather than attempting to treat symptoms. Root cause analysis is a structured, step-by-step process designed to seek out primary, underlying causes by gathering and analysing relevant data and testing solutions that address them.
If you only fix the symptoms –
what you see on the surface –
the problem will almost certainly return,
and need fixing over and over again.
However, if you look deeper to
figure out what's causing the problem,
you can fix the underlying systems and processes so that it goes away for good.
Studying the Tao
When you understand the root cause,
you can be creative in coming up with multiple solutions.
Otherwise, you may create workarounds and still not understand what is happening.
When we investigate the root cause of a problem,
we are searching for and studying the Tao that exists within the problem.
Do not see the problem as something bad,
but as an opportunity to study the TAO of things.
When one investigates the root cause, that is when we can delve deeper into the Tao.