Fishbone diagram
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When a team is doing risk management they will often need several fishbone diagrams as each one only corresponds to one problem while several problems may arise during a project. A problem could, as suggested earlier be something like the risk of customers not buying a car. Thus the problems are the risks the team will want to manage. It is also called an effect which is how the diagram also got the name Cause-and-Effect diagram. | When a team is doing risk management they will often need several fishbone diagrams as each one only corresponds to one problem while several problems may arise during a project. A problem could, as suggested earlier be something like the risk of customers not buying a car. Thus the problems are the risks the team will want to manage. It is also called an effect which is how the diagram also got the name Cause-and-Effect diagram. | ||
| − | When using the fishbone diagram it is particularly useful to do so on a large surface -such as e.g. a whiteboard, with lots of space for categories, subcategories, and causes, since the team cannot know at the beginning of the process just how many of these will be needed. Following is a step by step guide to using the fishbone diagram< | + | When using the fishbone diagram it is particularly useful to do so on a large surface -such as e.g. a whiteboard, with lots of space for categories, subcategories, and causes, since the team cannot know at the beginning of the process just how many of these will be needed. Following is a step by step guide to using the fishbone diagram<ref name="LBSpartners">Walsh, Ronan; ''Fishbone Diagram - How to Make and Use a Fishbone Diagram'', http://lbspartners.ie/fishbone-diagram/ , (August 3, 2017)</ ref>: |
| − | # The investigated problem should be written in the far right side of the whiteboard and a horisontal line to the left of it. Some make it an arrow aiming at the problem <!--ref to LBSpartners and CityProcessManagement-->to illustrate that this is the effect of the causes that are to be identified. But whether it is an arrow or just a line is of no consequence to the functionality of the diagram and is so up to the personal preferences of the team. <br /><!--insert image of this step--><br /> | + | # The investigated problem should be written in the far right side of the whiteboard and a horisontal line to the left of it. Some make it an arrow aiming at the problem <ref name="LBSpartners" /><ref name="City">''Cause and Effect Analysis using the Ishikawa Fishbone & 5 Whys'', http://www.cityprocessmanagement.com/Downloads/CPM_5Ys.pdf </ ref><!--ref to LBSpartners and CityProcessManagement-->to illustrate that this is the effect of the causes that are to be identified. But whether it is an arrow or just a line is of no consequence to the functionality of the diagram and is so up to the personal preferences of the team. <br /><!--insert image of this step--><br /> |
# Now the categories -or causes for the problem, should be written a good distance of to each side of the line -there should also be some distance between the categories themselves. Lines ar drawn from each category to the line. Again these lines could be made into arrows<!--ref to CityProcessManagement--> or not<!--ref to Wong-->. <br /><!--insert image of this step--><br /> | # Now the categories -or causes for the problem, should be written a good distance of to each side of the line -there should also be some distance between the categories themselves. Lines ar drawn from each category to the line. Again these lines could be made into arrows<!--ref to CityProcessManagement--> or not<!--ref to Wong-->. <br /><!--insert image of this step--><br /> | ||
# The appropriate subcategories or "sub"-causes can now be fitted into each of the categories by making horisontal lines on either side of the line connecting a category and "spine" of the fish, and writing the subcategory or cause in it. Whether subcategories are needed or not is largely up to the team and how detailed they want to do the diagram. It is entirely possible to solve the problem without a subcategory -in this case what would otherwise be the subcategory is now a cause. An example could be that for a category named "People" a cause could be "Employees not showing up for work". In this case the team could decided that this a root cause and a brainstorm on how to solve the problem could be to change the way employees are paid to depending on how much time they spend at work or put a limit on how many sick days employees are allowed. Another action could be that the team decides that "Employees not showing up for work" is a subcategory to which there is the cause "Employees bully each other". Now the team can brainstorm other ways to manage the problem, and will probably reach other conclusions than in the previous scenario. If the first scenario happens it is likely that that the work environment will worsen further and that one or more employees will leave the company. This of course creates new problems for the company as it is symptom treatment rather than doing something about the root of the problem, the root cause, which as it turns out the team had not managed to find after all. To find the root cause the team must continually ask why this happens. Why do the employees not show up for work? Why are the employees bullying each other? This approach is called "The Five Whys" as this is the approximate amount of whys a team will need to ask in order to reach the root cause<!--ref to Cityprocess and asq-->. <br /> <!--insert image of this step--> <br /> | # The appropriate subcategories or "sub"-causes can now be fitted into each of the categories by making horisontal lines on either side of the line connecting a category and "spine" of the fish, and writing the subcategory or cause in it. Whether subcategories are needed or not is largely up to the team and how detailed they want to do the diagram. It is entirely possible to solve the problem without a subcategory -in this case what would otherwise be the subcategory is now a cause. An example could be that for a category named "People" a cause could be "Employees not showing up for work". In this case the team could decided that this a root cause and a brainstorm on how to solve the problem could be to change the way employees are paid to depending on how much time they spend at work or put a limit on how many sick days employees are allowed. Another action could be that the team decides that "Employees not showing up for work" is a subcategory to which there is the cause "Employees bully each other". Now the team can brainstorm other ways to manage the problem, and will probably reach other conclusions than in the previous scenario. If the first scenario happens it is likely that that the work environment will worsen further and that one or more employees will leave the company. This of course creates new problems for the company as it is symptom treatment rather than doing something about the root of the problem, the root cause, which as it turns out the team had not managed to find after all. To find the root cause the team must continually ask why this happens. Why do the employees not show up for work? Why are the employees bullying each other? This approach is called "The Five Whys" as this is the approximate amount of whys a team will need to ask in order to reach the root cause<!--ref to Cityprocess and asq-->. <br /> <!--insert image of this step--> <br /> | ||
Revision as of 18:46, 19 September 2017
The Fishbone diagram is named for its resemblance to a fishbone with the investigated problem being in the place of the head and the identified root causes coming out of the spine (see picture). It is also called an Ishikawa diagram after its creator Kaoru Ishikawa or a Cause-and-Effect diagram. Identifying the root causes of a problem makes it a valuable tool in Risk Management, as it can help the team figuring out how best to handle this with ARTA.
This article will focus on the fishbone diagram. It will consider how the diagram is appropriately used in Risk Management as well as its purpose ans limitations. It will also touch upon tools that can be used in conjunction with the diagram to strengthen a project's management of risks. The article will be based on previous literature on the subject.
The Purpose of the Fishbone Diagram
The purpose of the fishbone diagram in Risk Management is to identify various root causes of a potential problem for a project or program[1]. It does so by having the user brainstorm over various causes for the problem and continuously going to deeper levels by finding the cause of the previous cause. Thus a cause-rib might have more subcauses, see the Illustration. The process of making new "ribs" on the fish continues until the team agrees, that the root cause has been reached. In this way the tool aims at organising the causes for the investigated problem. But the team does not have to find deeper levels for each cause they identify, only for those that they deem are "Very Likely" or "Somewhat Likely" to happen and will be "Very Easy" or "Somewhat Easy" to control or fix (see "Application" step 4 for reading more about these gradings). The reason for this is so that the team does not waste time and effort on treating a cause that is unlikely to happen or that they won't be able to do anything about anyway. If the team is hard pressed for time and have a lot of causes to look into, they can start with the ones they deem will have the highest impact or effect in causing the problem.
Application of the Fishbone Diagram
When a team is doing risk management they will often need several fishbone diagrams as each one only corresponds to one problem while several problems may arise during a project. A problem could, as suggested earlier be something like the risk of customers not buying a car. Thus the problems are the risks the team will want to manage. It is also called an effect which is how the diagram also got the name Cause-and-Effect diagram. When using the fishbone diagram it is particularly useful to do so on a large surface -such as e.g. a whiteboard, with lots of space for categories, subcategories, and causes, since the team cannot know at the beginning of the process just how many of these will be needed. Following is a step by step guide to using the fishbone diagramCite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag
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