This is probably common knowledge, but I think is root cause is generally overlooked and many times we just don’t care what is really causing the problem, just how quickly can we fix it… I recently read this in the Lean Software Development book, and thought it was really interesting and simple; something that I should focus on more… So, I started Googling the 5 Whys this morning and found out a couple of interesting things… This approach was first used (or documented) by Toyota, which much of the Lean book is based upon. What I did not realize was that is now rolled into Six Sigma. Here is a quick Wiki page you can read too… I just think this is something we should all keep in our problem solving toolkit, it never hurts to ask!