Fishbone helps find the root cause by organizing possible causes into categories, so the team does not jump to one quick answer or blame one person too early. It is a visual RCA tool used to identify possible causes of a problem.
Simple explanation for students
“Fishbone does not automatically give the root cause. It helps the team brainstorm, organize, compare, and narrow down possible causes until the most likely root cause becomes visible.”
How it works
Problem:
Checkout crashes 40% of the time
Fishbone categories:
People --------\
Process --------\
Tools -----------> PROBLEM: Checkout crashes 40% of the time
Testing --------/
DoD ------------/
Environment ---/
Then the team asks:
| Category | Possible causes |
|---|---|
| People | Developer rushed, reviewer missed issue |
| Process | No mobile testing step, weak release checklist |
| Tools | Automated tests did not catch checkout crash |
| Testing | Only happy-path testing, no edge-case testing |
| Definition of Done | Story marked Done without mobile validation |
| Environment | Test environment different from production |
How it leads to the root cause
After listing possible causes, the team looks for the causes that are most likely, most repeated, or supported by evidence.
For example, the team may discover:
The checkout failed mostly on mobile devices, but mobile testing was not part of the Definition of Done.
So the root cause may be:
The team’s Definition of Done did not require mobile checkout testing before release.
Teaching line
Fishbone helps us move from “What went wrong?” to “What could have caused it?” and then to “Which cause should we fix so the problem does not happen again?”
Ref: AI Tools as is
