IPA IP 2022 Question 48
A question IPA Japan published in 令和4年度 ITパスポート試験 公開問題 問48, translated into English. ITPEC is based on the same exams.
In the quality management of a system development project, which of the following is an appropriate description of the method for pursuing the root cause by associating quality problems with their causes?
Explanation
Organizing candidate causes in the shape of a fish bone — the cause and effect diagram (fishbone or Ishikawa diagram) links a quality problem to its causes so the root cause can be traced.
The problem (the effect) is written at the head of the fish. Major cause categories branch off the backbone as large bones, such as people, methods, tools and requirements in a development project, and more detailed causes are added as smaller bones under each. Following the bones from the problem down through cause and sub-cause shows the relationships between the problem and its causes and leads to the root cause.
Answer (c)
Why not others:
- •(a) — setting control limits and watching for points outside the upper and lower limits is a control chart, which detects that a process is out of control rather than relating a problem to its causes
- •(b) — striking non-causes off a list of candidates is simple elimination; it does not relate the problem to its causes or show how causes connect
- •(d) — classifying causes and ranking them by number of cases is a Pareto chart, which sets priorities but does not trace a problem to its root cause
Key rule: Cause and effect (fishbone) diagram: relate a problem to its causes; Pareto chart: rank causes by frequency; control chart: detect an unstable process from points outside the control limits.
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This question comes from the past questions IPA Japan publishes, translated into English by ITPEC Practice. ITPEC Practice is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with IPA or ITPEC. See the original paper (PDF) or Report an issue.