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Ishikawa diagrams (aka Fishbone diagrams) aren't always the right tool to use, (see other comments) but when they are useful, they are very useful. I'd never us
by mindcrime 7y ago
Ishikawa diagrams (aka Fishbone diagrams) aren't always the right tool to use, (see other comments) but when they are useful, they are very useful. I'd never used them before my time at Lenovo, and while I was there I gained a considerable appreciation for their utility. Note that I consider the bulk of that utility to be in communicating to upper management. They are useful in and of themselves, but only at a certain level of detail.
I also came to appreciate using WBS diagrams (Work Breakdown Structure) for pretty much the same reason(s) and largely with the same constraints.
- blaser-waffle 7y ago> Note that I consider the bulk of that utility to be in communicating to upper management. A massive amount of software, tools, and techniques exist entirely for that purpose. Best advice I heard was something like "treat them like children: bright colors, short slides, easy to grasp charts".
- moftz 7y agoI've used them for root cause analysis. Sometimes it really does help when you are just absolutely clueless on what the problem could be. Other times, you end up just wasting time trying to figure out other branches that could be causing the problem when you already have a general idea of the cause. It can be an effective tool when used by the right person at the right time.