Root Cause Pattern — Workflow

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

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End-to-end flow

Step procedure

Step	Actor	Action	Exit criteria
1	IC / eng manager	Schedule RCA soon after mitigate	Meeting time + invitees
2	Timeline Builder	Build UTC table from sources	Contested gaps marked
3	Facilitator	Read blameless statement; review timeline first	Shared fact base
4	Team + Five Whys	Ask why ≥5 times from trigger	One systemic root cause sentence
5	Team	List contributing factors (not extra roots)	Categorized table
6	Detection Gap Analyst	Time-to-detect; why missed	Checklist answers
7	Team	Immediate / sprint / quarter actions	Owners + due dates in-meeting
8	Action Scrubber	Reject vague/ownerless items	Scrub pass
9	Authors	Publish; track prevention conditions	FINAL + tracking links

Facilitation rules (from SDLC prompt meat)

1. Blameless norm at start — read it aloud
2. Timeline before analysis
3. Stop 5 Whys when you hit an investment/system choice, not a person
4. Assign owners in the meeting, never “we’ll find someone later”

Parallelism rule

Do not run a punitive review in parallel under the same document. If HR/legal needs a separate track, keep it separate from the blameless RCA artifact.