Why the Five Whys stop short

About this webinar

In 1912, the Titanic hit an iceberg. Ask why five times and you land on a single root cause, inadequate procedures for ice warnings. Fix that, and you’ve learned almost nothing about why the ship sank, why lifeboats launched half-empty, or why more than 1,500 people died.

Software engineering borrowed Root Cause Analysis and the Five Whys from the factory floor. They hand you a clean answer fast. They also give you a reason to stop looking.

Steve Mynett spent six years building incident response teams in fintech. He joins Ben McBratney to retell the Titanic disaster as an incident investigation and show what a contributing-factors approach finds that root cause misses.

Bring your questions. We’re saving time for Q&A.