Root Cause Pattern — Failures

Pattern: Root Cause
Component: failures.md
Version: 1.1 | Updated: 2026-07-16

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Failure 1: Multiple “root causes”

Symptom: Document lists several root causes; readers cannot prioritize.
Cause: Analysis stopped at triggers and contributing factors.
Recovery: Choose the systemic condition that allowed the trigger to matter; demote the rest.

Failure 2: Vague prevention (“improve monitoring”)

Symptom: Actions cannot be verified done; recurrence likely.
Cause: Meeting ended without specificity.
Recovery: Rewrite per SDLC norm — named alert, threshold, routing, owner, due date.

Failure 3: Blame drift

Symptom: Narrative centers a person; future incidents go underground.
Cause: Blameless norm not enforced.
Recovery: Rewrite to system conditions; facilitator restates norm; remove punitive language.

Failure 4: Ownerless actions

Symptom: Tickets never created; due dates slip silently.
Cause: Assignment deferred “after the meeting.”
Recovery: Reopen DRAFT; assign in a 15-minute follow-up with the same attendees.

Failure 5: RCA during active harm

Symptom: Meeting debates causes while customers still failing.
Cause: Started before containment.
Recovery: Stop; return to hotfix-pattern; resume RCA after mitigate.