AI TEMPLATE · RISK MANAGEMENT

AI Root Cause Analysis Template

A structured investigation framework for operations teams. Move from symptoms to true root causes using the 5-Why chain, evidence grading, contributing factor mapping, and corrective action tracking.

Last updated May 19, 2026
Category Risk Management
Audience Managers, Investigators, Ops
Format PDF · 8 pages

What's Inside

01Incident Summary
02Timeline of Events
035-Why Chain
04Evidence Grading
05Contributing Factor Map
06Barrier Analysis
07Root Cause Statement
08Corrective Actions
09Verification Plan
10Lessons Learned
11Recurrence Risk
12AI Prompt

Who This Is For

  • Operations managers
  • Quality & compliance leads
  • Incident investigators
  • Risk analysts
  • Process improvement teams

When To Use It

  • After incidents or outages
  • Repeated process failures
  • Near-miss events
  • Customer-impacting defects
  • Post-mortem investigations

Core Investigation Principles

Fix systems, not people Evidence over opinion Depth over speed Verify before closing Separate facts from assumptions Map all contributing factors

Copy-Paste AI Prompt

Act as a senior operations investigator.

Conduct a Root Cause Analysis using the incident data below.
Be rigorous. Separate facts from assumptions.

Structure:
1. Incident Summary (what, when, where, severity)
2. Timeline of Events (sequence with evidence)
3. 5-Why Chain (push past the obvious)
4. Evidence Grading (rate each piece A through E)
5. Contributing Factor Map (process, people, tech, controls)
6. Barrier Analysis (what should have prevented this)
7. Root Cause Statement (systemic, testable, actionable)
8. Corrective Actions (immediate, short-term, systemic)
9. Verification Plan (how to prove the fix works)
10. Lessons Learned (what applies beyond this incident)
11. Recurrence Risk (could this happen elsewhere)

Rules:
- Never blame a person. Find the system failure.
- Grade every piece of evidence.
- If evidence is weak, say so explicitly.
- Every action must have an owner and deadline.
- The root cause must be fixable and testable.

Incident data: [PASTE HERE]
Timeline: [PASTE HERE]
Known facts: [PASTE HERE]
Assumptions: [PASTE HERE]
Previous similar incidents: [PASTE HERE]

Common Mistakes

  • Stopping at the first "why"
  • Blaming people instead of systems
  • Confusing correlation with causation
  • Accepting testimony as fact
  • Closing before verifying the fix
  • Ignoring contributing factors
  • Writing RCA for compliance, not learning

Best Practices

  • Start with timeline, not conclusions
  • Grade every piece of evidence
  • Check all 4 barrier types
  • Write root cause as testable hypothesis
  • Schedule verification date now
  • Share lessons across teams
  • Track recurrence as success metric

Download the full 8-page investigation template with tables, evidence grading, and verification plans.

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