Five Whys
Five Whys or 5 Whys is a root cause analysis technique used to explore the cause-and-effect relationships underlying a problem. It is a simple but effective tool for identifying the root cause of a problem by asking "why" five times or at least five times until the root cause is identified.
Read more on the Wikipedia article on the topic.
See Also
- Atlassian Team Playbook - 5 Whys. https://www.atlassian.com/team-playbook/plays/5-whys
- A Template from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. https://www.cms.gov/medicare/provider-enrollment-and-certification/qapi/downloads/fivewhys.pdf
- Root Cause Analysis Compared. https://extapps.ksc.nasa.gov/Reliability/Documents/RCA_Compared_4Tim2.pdf