Root Cause analysis vs other analysis

[elenahuerta]

Hi community,

A client asked me what the advantages are of using Root Cause analysis in stead of the General Analysis. They claim the Root Cause is a lot of administration, which I understand. I have been looking in the documentation but I am unable to find an answer to their "complain". I would much appreciate your experiences and feedback!

Thank you!

Elena

[Sanjay191]

Root Cause Analysis (RCA) helps teams look deeper to find the real reason something went wrong, not just what happened on the surface.

General Analysis usually just explains what happened, but RCA explains why it happened and how to stop it from happening again.

[Dr Atul G- LNG]

Hi @Sanjay191 

can u add some details about - 

Summary: Business Value of RCA in ServiceNow

I know it is chatgpt answer and full text is not correct.

[Dr Atul G- LNG]

Hi @elenahuerta 

From a process perspective, I would say these are two different types of analysis used for reporting purposes. You can use both, but the purpose of RCA (Root Cause Analysis) is more specific, focusing on the direct cause of a problem. The general analysis, on the other hand, covers any type of analysis that might not be directly related to the problem but could be potential or exploratory in nature.

[Mark Manders]

I wish people would at least make the AI answers their own, so they also understand it themselves and check if it truly answers the question. But:

You are right. RCA feels/is more administration. The question is, what you want to achieve. Do you want a structured way to find the (root) cause of a (recurring) issue, or do you just want to scratch the surface? 

The purpose is different (find why something went wrong vs understanding trends/performance) as is the outcome (prevent it from happening again vs improvement of understanding (optimization)). RCA is a very precise process, while GA is broader. Using GA within RCA would be a good thing. But GA won't prevent something from happening again all the time.