using the 5 whys to determine why your sap major incident really happened

Use the 5 WHYs to determine why your last

SAP Major Incident really happened

*

Without making your brain bleed *

First, pretend you’re a kid again and ask…

WHY?

WHY? WHY?

WHY? WHY?

WHY?

WHY?

We know, it’s extremely annoying.

But after a Major SAP Incident,

it’s crucial to get down to the REAL

root cause of the issue…

But after a Major SAP Incident,

it’s crucial to get down to the REAL

root cause of the issue…

If you don’t do this, you’ll never be able to

fix the underlying problem...

But after a Major SAP Incident,

it’s crucial to get down to the REAL

root cause of the issue…

If you don’t do this, you’ll never be able to

fix the underlying problem...

Which means the Major Incident will

happen again

So you need to ask

5 TIMES

So you need to ask

Only then will you get down to the root cause responsible for the pain of your Major Incident.

Like toothache, SAP Major Incidents really hurt.

Take this example…

OUR INTERFACE

HAS FAILED!

WHY

Why did the interface fail?

BECAUSE THERE WAS AN IDoc ERROR

Why did the interface fail?

BECAUSE THERE WAS AN IDoc ERROR

Why was there an IDoc error?

BECAUSE A LEGACY SYSTEM SENT THE WRONG DATA

Why did the interface fail?

BECAUSE THERE WAS AN IDoc ERROR

Why did a legacy system send the wrong data?

BECAUSE THERE WAS NO VALIDATION ON A DATA INPUT SCREEN

Why was there an IDoc error?

BECAUSE A LEGACY SYSTEM SENT THE WRONG DATA

Why did the interface fail?

BECAUSE THERE WAS AN IDoc ERROR

Why did a legacy system send the wrong data?

BECAUSE THERE WAS NO VALIDATION ON A DATA INPUT SCREEN

Why was there no validation?

BECAUSE IT WASN’T IN THE SPEC

Why was there an IDoc error?

BECAUSE A LEGACY SYSTEM SENT THE WRONG DATA

Why did the interface fail?

BECAUSE THERE WAS AN IDoc ERROR

Why did a legacy system send the wrong data?

BECAUSE THERE WAS NO VALIDATION ON A DATA INPUT SCREEN

Why was there no validation?

BECAUSE IT WASN’T IN THE SPEC

Why wasn’t it in the spec?

BECAUSE OUR REQUIREMENTS SPECIFCATION DOESN’T MANDATE THAT VALIDATION MUST BE DESIGNED IN TO SYSTEM CHANGES

Why was there an IDoc error?

BECAUSE A LEGACY SYSTEM SENT THE WRONG DATA

BINGO! BECAUSE OUR

REQUIREMENTS SPECIFCATION DOESN’T

MANDATE THAT VALIDATION MUST BE

DESIGNED IN TO SYSTEM CHANGES

Now here’s your real underlying root cause

And more importantly, You’ve identified something you can actually fix

BECAUSE OUR REQUIREMENTS

SPECIFCATION DOESN’T MANDATE THAT

VALIDATION MUST BE DESIGNED IN TO SYSTEM

CHANGES

You’ve now found a way to stop similar incidents like this disrupting your

business operations again in the future

You’ve now found a way to stop similar incidents like this disrupting your

business operations again in the future

And you can go back and identify other validation issues that may cause

interfaces to fail.

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