Cause & Effect Diagram

A cause and effect diagram can also be known as an Ishikawa diagram or fishbone diagram. Cause and effect diagrams are especially helpful with complicated problems where a maze of facts needs to be sorted out to isolate the most likely cause(s) of a problem.

This is a tool used to is also used to clarify the links between different factors that affect a performance.

To make a cause and effect diagram:

• Put the problem in the ‘head’ of the fish, then
• Decide on the possible categories of causes of the problem and show them as major ‘bones’ off the central ‘spine’ of the fish
• On the minor bones of the fish identify all causes that might affect the outcomes in that category

The following PDF documents provide you with samples and a useful template:

- Example of holiday bookings in the tourism industry

- Example of managing change in an organisation

- Writeable template