PMHut - Project Management Articles for Project Managers

PMHut - Project Management Articles for Project Managers

The Ishikawa Diagram

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The Ishikawa Diagram
By SmartDraw.com

Originally developed by Kaoru Ishikawa to visualize the causes of a specific event, it has become know by several names: Cause and Effect, Fishbone, or Ishikawa diagram. It is one of the 7 basic Quality control tools, and has become commonly used to determine components needed for a desired outcome.

Typical Uses

Anytime you would like to examine why something happened or might happen a cause and effect diagram is very helpful. It can also be helpful to show relationships between contributing factors.

Best Practices

  • Identify the process or event. Define the process to be examined.
  • Draw the backbone. Once you identify the process, draw a straight line on your page, and on the right side, draw a rectangle at the end. Write a brief description of the process in the rectangle.
  • Add a spine. Draw a line that starts on the backbone and extend it out, away from the backbone at an angle. Think about a fish skeleton, because your diagram will look much like that when you are done. Either perpendicular or parallel to the spine, write a description of a cause or effect. Continue to add spines and a cause or effect until you have documented all the factors you want to diagram.
  • Analyze. Once your diagram is done, all that is left to do is analyze and make improvements.

Example Ishikawa Diagram

Ishikawa Diagram

About SmartDraw.com

SmartDraw.com is the creator of SmartDraw, the world’s most popular business graphics software and the first program that makes it possible for ordinary computer users to create presentation-quality business graphics in minutes. Each year more than two million people install and use SmartDraw and the company counts more than half of the members of the Fortune 500 as loyal customers.

Founded in 1994, SmartDraw.com is privately-held and based in San Diego, CA. In addition to SmartDraw 2008 for general business and home use, the company also offers SmartDraw Healthcare and SmartDraw Legal editions which include graphics and applications unique to their respective fields. For more information on the company or to download a free trial of SmartDraw, please visit www.smartdraw.com.

PMHut Team

PMHut Team

PMHut.com is a website dedicated to providing PM articles, detailed project management software reviews, and the latest news for the most popular web-based collaboration tools.

3 Responses

  1. Avatar Michel Operto says:
    April 23, 2008 at 10:07 am

    I like these cause and effect diagrams. They are easy to read even for new comers. I found their usage beneficial when trying to focus a project team on the real root causes rather than addressing the immediate visible symptoms.

    When associated with a simple problem resolution approach they can be very effective to support the standard 7 steps:
    1 Define/scope project/problem
    2 Describe current situation – Gather data and team
    3 Identify/Analyze/confirm root cause with data
    4 Implement (pilot) solutions
    5 Evaluate results
    6 Standardize effective methods
    7 Communicate results / Lessons learned

  1. Quality Control in Project Management - PM Hut
    November 30, 2008

    […] Ishikawa Diagrams: these are also known as cause-and-effect diagrams and fishbones, but Ishikawa sounds brainier. The point of these diagrams, regardless of the nomenclature, is to facilitate a conversation on why causes and contributing to a problem. […]

  2. Root Cause Analysis in Project Management - PM Hut
    December 17, 2009

    […] There are many tools available to the project manager embarking on an RCA exercise. Many, such as Pareto analysis, Barrier analysis, and Bayesian inference rely on statistics observed over time that the project manager simply won’t have. Kepner-Tregoe also offer a unique approach to problem solving. They’ve been using this unique approach for over 50 years so it does get results if used properly. Using the Kepner-Tregoe approach requires proper training which is beyond the scope of this article. If you’d like to explore using their approach, I’d recommend taking their course so that you’ll become proficient with their methods. The method I will use in this article is based on the Ishikawa or fishbone diagram. […]

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