Four Basic Questions to Define a Problem
Defining a problem within an organization is much more than selecting one thing. There are four basic questions that frame the information necessary for a complete problem definition:
| What |
What is the problem? |
| When |
When did the problem happen? |
| Where |
Where did the problem happen? |
| Goals |
How were each of the Goals impacted? |
These questions are similar to the standard who, what, when, where, why and how, also known as the 5Ws + H. The who, why and how question are not included in the problem definition. It’s important to get input from the people involved with the problem who have first hand information. But writing down names within the problem definition can inadvertently affect responses because of the perception of blame. For this reason, there is no who question in the problem definition. The why and how questions are fundamental to the cause-and-effect analysis (Cause Mapping Root Cause Analysis- Part 2). The remaining questions are what, when and where to which the impact to the goals are added.
Even thoughCause Mapping root cause analysis emphasizes defining an issue based on the goals the first question in the problem definition is “What is the problem?” People typically have a singular view of a problem, believing they know the one thing that caused the issue. They’re positive they know what the problem is - they’re right and anyone who disagrees with them is wrong. This first question is used to accommodate different points of view. If there are three different views of what the problem is write down each problem, separated by commas. There is no need to pick the problem. The impact to the goals will reveal how the problem should be framed and provide the starting point(s) for the cause-and-effect analysis.
The second question “When did the problem happen?” captures basic information about the timing of the issue, including anything that was unique. The third question “Where did the problem happen?” captures both the physical location where the problem happened as well as where within the process. Each of these two questions will be explained in detail in the next section.
The last question “How were each of the goals impacted?” connects all of the individual views of the problem to the organization’s priorities. A problem should always be defined from the organization’s overall perspective, not from one person or one department. The overall goals of the organization provide alignment. This doesn’t mean that what people referred to as the problem are wrong. What people call problems are actually causes (see cause-and-effect in root cause analysis basics).