Cloud computing, microservices, agile – they were supposed to make things quicker to deliver, simpler to build and faster to scale – and for the most part they have delivered on all these promises and more.
However, even though they claim to make things simpler we would argue that the world that we now live in seems to be more fragile and brittle because the systems that are being built are more complex as a whole and individual people don’t necessarily see or understand the overall picture.
Where we operate in the cybersecurity, infrastructure and cloud space, we acknowledge that different people believe they know what is going on. The enterprise architect or strategist uses tools and methods to define how things should hang together, they define patterns, principles and standards and then implement governance processes to make sure everything is implemented according to these plans.
The solution architect takes their slice of the architecture and breaks it down so that an individual solution is better defined – what functionality will be implemented, what technology will be used, what trade-offs need to be made. This then gets interpreted by the engineer or developer to implement. It should all work but often it doesn’t. When it doesn’t work, we need a way of getting to the root cause or causes quickly so we can implement sustainable and long-term solutions.
One simple technique that we recommend at Cordant is the ‘5 Whys technique’ developed by Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of Toyota Industries in the 1930s. Whilst there are other methods and tools (e.g FMEA, Fishbone Diagrams) that can be used, the 5 Whys technique is a simple technique that can be used in many situations to get to the underlying causes of problems and identify actions to resolve them.
It’s a straightforward problem-solving method that involves asking “Why?” five times (or more) to drill down into the root cause of an issue. Each answer forms the basis of the next question, creating a chain of inquiry that leads to the core problem.
If anyone has been faced with a 5-year-old asking a question it will be familiar territory although children don’t tend to stop at 5 Whys!
Each problem may not be linear in nature and therefore there may be branches after each why question. These should then be followed down to their conclusion leading to multiple root causes and different treatment plans.
Let us say a company has been impacted by a cybersecurity breach:
So, in this example, the company might resolve this problem by allocating a budget for cybersecurity training, creating, or purchasing training materials, training their employees, and then running regular phishing simulations to test employee understanding.
By asking “Why?” five times, the company discovers that the root cause of the cybersecurity breach is the lack of a comprehensive training program, not just the employee’s mistake.
This is a simple technique to use. It can be done to help problem solve in the moment (e.g. during an incident) or after the problem has occurred so that the right fix can be applied.
The following are some of the key benefits that can be realised from applying this technique to solve your business problems.
At Cordant, we use techniques like the 5 whys to get to the root cause of problems whilst simultaneously irritating members of the team by mimicking their children (joke).
It is an extremely effective technique that allows teams to move beyond surface-level symptoms and develop effective solutions that prevent issues from recurring.
Whether you have a cybersecurity, infrastructure, or cloud problem to solve, this technique can help you uncover answers to your problems in a systematic and structured way. Why not give it a go.
