REPLY Definition of root cause (SD6790)

[SDMAIL Jack Homer]

Posted by  "Jack Homer" <jhomer at comcast.net>

Now that Jack Harich has clarified that he's looking for "the key 
elements of the model [or, better, the real world or the problematic 
system] that cause it to behave the way it does", I think we have an 
answer for him from SD and need look no further.  We call "root cause" 
the dynamic hypothesis. And, we call "good solution" (the other concept 
Jack talks about) a high leverage point.  Note that a high leverage 
point can refer to turning an existing lever or, alternatively, 
intervening in a way that creates an entirely new feedback loop.  The 
presence of the word "hypothesis" in dynamic hypothesis reflects my 
earlier comment that we can never really peel to the heart of the onion 
as one might do in an engineered system, but rather can only go down a 
few layers to where we can see some underlying delay and feedback 
structures that may help to explain the source and persistence of a 
problem.

- Jack Homer
Posted by  "Jack Homer" <jhomer at comcast.net>
posting date  Thu, 6 Mar 2008 08:52:05 -0500