A missed deadline or a failed deployment tells you something went wrong, but not why. Cause analysis investigates the factors behind the problem before you decide how to respond. For an engineering manager, that may mean examining an employee’s underperformance or learning from a production incident. section 4.5.1 section 12.2.12
Start with what you can observe, then investigate without jumping to blame:
- For underperformance, notice changes in work quality, missed deadlines, or reduced engagement. Consider skill gaps, personal circumstances, role fit, resources, unclear expectations, and changing interests rather than assuming one explanation. section 4.5.1
- For an incident, inform affected people, identify the underlying problem, assess customer impact, implement a fix, and document the troubleshooting and resolution. Use what you learn to choose actions that reduce recurrence. section 12.2.12
Ask why again
Suppose a system crashes. An initial answer is that its database server became unresponsive. Asking why again reveals that the server ran out of disk space; further questions trace the space use to large log files from a backup process that failed to rotate or clean them up. The 5 Whys approach repeats this question—often about five times, or deeper if needed—to get beneath the first explanation. section 12.2.12
Keep the inquiry focused on correction and learning, not a blame game. In a performance conversation, gather information objectively and give actionable feedback; after an incident, record what happened so the team can learn from it. section 4.5.1 section 12.2.12 section 1.1.3
