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Vol. I · No. 251
Mon · 8 Jun
A Daily Lexicon of Trustworthy Data
The Lexicon

005·76

root cause analysis

/ruːt kɔːz əˈnæl.ɪ.sɪs/ - n.

1 [colloq.] The search for the underlying cause, which terminates the moment it reaches a team that can defend itself.Keep. Punchy.This is the problem.

Working definition

2. The disciplined investigation that traces a quality failure back from its symptom to the underlying defect in process, system, or definition that produced it.

Evidence
See also
  • data cleansingRepairing the data instead of the system that keeps breaking it, monthly, in perpetuity.
  • incident postmortemA document that names the cause precisely, assigns the corrective action vaguely, and recurs on schedule.
  • remediationFixing the rows now and scheduling the cause for a quarter that does not arrive.