The notion of asking 5 Whys is part of Six Sigma processes in a variety of domains. Seeking the Root Cause, in a Root Cause Analysis, to standard practice in manufacturing and business processes.
In the Project Management domain, this concept is not so common. I've come to the conclusion that we're mission out on a critical success factor for increasing the probability of success from our efforts.
While participating in an Initial Visit between our client and the DCMA, the Six Sigma processes were described by the DCMA staff, which included DCAA for several parts of the 32 Criteria of ANSI-748-B and the 6 Business Systems needed for program success.
Here's an example of who to use the 5 Whys on your Project
We just got an invoice from Bob's House of Power Supplies, that we don't have a purchase order for. Bob claims he had verbal approval to build the power supplies on short notice and ship them Fed-X to the integrator.
- Why didn't we have the PO in place before Bob started work? - I needed then real fast and the PO process took too long
- Why didn't you come to purchasing and get a fast track PO? - I didn't know we had such a thing.
- Why didn't you make the call to find out options? - I didn't really know who to call at the time.
- Why didn't our purchasing process handbook inform you of these options? - I don't have a copy.
- Why are our engineering managers not trained on how to order material? - Where is the training and process surveillance processes needed to provide emergency procurements as well as standard procurements?
In the end the process failed all around. The typical response is I went around the process because the process didn't provide me with the needed capabilities. But in the end emergency procurements are common, and there is a process, just not known.
