Root Cause Analysis

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The Science of Root Cause Analysis

HYPOTHESIS AS A BASIS FOR NEW KNOWLEDGE

Forming and evaluating hypotheses is a basic part of the scientic method

and should be an essential part of root cause analysis (RCA). A root cause

investigator should form a hypothesis to account for the evidence on hand

or collect new information to form a preliminary hypothesis. en, the

hypothesis should be empirically checked; the resulting observations

serve as a basis for either a new hypothesis or conrmation testing of

the hypothesis.

A hypothesis is like a well- reasoned guess and is generally tentative; an

attempt must be made to empirically support the hy ...