They say that Everything You Need Will Come To You At The Perfect Time.
After participating in a series of placement processes, my ‘Perfect time’ had finally come. In the month of November, Suntec Business Solutions began its recruitment process. A presentation (on one of the given topics) and two rounds of interviews (one technical round based on the topic chosen for presentation and one HR round) later, I got placed and relocated to the city of popular temples and beaches, Trivandrum.
In the month of April 2019, my internship journey began. I was recruited into the Quality Assurance Team at SunTec and was given a project to suggest measures for efficient Root Cause Analysis that would ensure continuous improvement in the product development process. My mentor and colleagues explained to me the pre-existing process for Root Cause Analysis in the company and made it possible for me to get a first-hand experience of it. The pre-existing RCA was as follows:
- Extracting defects on weekly basis
- Approvals from the Function Owner for conducting RCA on a particular defect
- Getting information about the root cause of the defect from the project lead
- Filtering out issues that have already been resolved in the past
- Conducting expert panel discussion for the unresolved issues and deciding upon action items to completely eradicate the same
- Follow-up on the action items until its closure
The aforementioned steps highlighted some major flaws with this method with respect to the respondents of RCA.
- Unawareness- Some respondents did not understand the importance of Root Cause Analysis and hence did not put enough effort.
- Time consuming- Product development ran on a tight schedule, therefore, though some respondents understood the importance of RCA, they couldn’t allocate enough time to do a proper one
- Lack of understanding- Some respondents did not fully understand the difference between direct cause and Root cause.
- Lack of repository- Since the learnings of RCA were documented in separate excel sheets, it became difficult to gather knowledge about the previously resolved root causes.
To fix these issues, the following measures need to be ensured:
- Communicating the importance of RCA
- Making the process of collecting information for the analysis easier and quick
- Framing the questions for collection of information in such a way the root cause of the issue is exposed.
- Creating a one stop repository for all Root Cause learnings
To solve most of the major concerns with the pre-existing Root Cause Analysis methods, I recommended the creation of a SharePoint list that would contain all the necessary information about the defect. The list is designed in such a way that it becomes the one stop shop for all the approvals, information collection and action item follow-ups. This list drastically reduced the hassle of keeping track of mails and excel sheets. Since all the Root Causes are documented in this list, it would also act as a knowledge transfer platform for all stakeholders to ensure that no past defects are repeated.
In the due process of this project, I researched about the various methods of Root Cause Analyses, the RCA process followed in different firms and SharePoint lists. I also learnt that any textbook Root Cause Analysis methods CANNOT be blindly incorporated to the functionalities of a firm. Understanding the underlying issues and tailoring the process accordingly only will lead to the required outcome.
In order to get here, I frequently had discussions with my mentor regarding the possible recommendations that can be implemented. I can say for a fact that I have received all the support and opportunities required from my mentor and colleagues to complete the project successfully.