RCA RCA Tools and Techniques

Question 1

What does the '5 Whys' technique involve in Root Cause Analysis?

Accepted Answer

Asking 'why' repeatedly until the root cause is identified

Answer

The 5 Whys technique iteratively asks 'why' a problem occurred, typically five times, to drill down to the underlying root cause.

Question 2

Which RCA tool uses a diagram shaped like a fish skeleton to organize causes?

Accepted Answer

Fishbone (Ishikawa) Diagram

Answer

The Fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram visually arranges potential causes into categories branching off a central spine, resembling a fish skeleton.

Question 3

What is a Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) primarily used for in RCA?

Accepted Answer

Mapping logical relationships between failures and their causes

Answer

FTA uses a top-down, deductive logic tree to map the relationships between a top-level failure event and its contributing causes.

Question 4

In RCA, what does a Pareto Chart help analysts identify?

Accepted Answer

The most frequently occurring causes using the 80/20 rule

Answer

A Pareto Chart ranks causes by frequency or impact, highlighting the vital few causes (roughly 20%) responsible for most problems (roughly 80%).

Question 5

Which tool in RCA is best suited for identifying correlations between two variables?

Accepted Answer

Scatter Diagram

Answer

A Scatter Diagram plots two variables on x and y axes to visually reveal whether a correlation or relationship exists between them.

RCA - Root Cause Analysis Practice Test