REPLY Definition of root cause (SD6777)

[SDMAIL Bill Braun]

Posted by  Bill Braun <bbraun at hlthsys.com>

Jack Harich opines that if the structure that produces the reference 
mode is the root cause, then there is no root cause, per se. I ought to 
have added that once the model is constructed, the high leverage policy 
or policies that (when changed, added, or deleted) produce the desired 
("hoped") behavior would be indicators of the root cause (that is, the 
root cause would be policies that are mal-designed, missing, or present 
and problematic).

Additionally, I wonder if the term itself is doing us a disservice. The 
term is singular, and suggests "just one thing". Is that a helpful way 
to think about complex problems? It would seem to rule out the 
interdependent interaction of two or more "roots".

Humbly accepting the mantle of Dean of the Thou Shalt Have No Root Cause 
school,

Bill Braun
Posted by  Bill Braun <bbraun at hlthsys.com>
posting date  Wed, 05 Mar 2008 06:15:00 -0500