“5 whys” technique
Mature professionals always try to fix the root problem instead of fixing symptoms. But how to find the root problem? One of the tools which work for me is the “5 whys” technique. The rules are simple start from question “Why?” applied to the problem which you want to solve and try to answer on it, after that try to convert you answer into the “Why” question and answer on it and so until the problem will be clear for you and you can explain it to everyone who interested in it. Schematically it looks like this:
Question: “Why does X happen?”
Answer: “Because of Y”
Question: “Why does Y happen?”
Answer: “Because of Z”
Question: “Why does Z happen?”
and so on.
Sound easy, but in practice not so.
First of all “Why” can lead you to infinity deep. Usually, I define the low limit as a border of my application. But from the point of personal experience, it is highly rewarded to go beyond the application’s borders and learn something new.
The second is a temptation to answer only on the first question and based on this information try to solve the problem.
From my observation when you find the root problem, a solution is so obvious and clear that it does not require many steps to fix the problem. If your solution is too heavy, try to returns back and dig deeper into the issue because maybe you solve the wrong problem. And the more obvious sign that you did not find the root problem if the similar or the same problem appears over time.
