Root cause analysis – what do we know?

Abstract

Root cause analysis (RCA) provides audit firms, regulators, policy makers and practitioners the opportunity to learn from past adverse events and prevent them from reoccurring in the future, leading to better audit quality. Recently approved regulations (ISQM1) make RCA mandatory for certain adverse events, making it essential to learn how to properly conduct an RCA. Building on the findings and recommendations from the RCA literature from other industries where RCA practice is more established such as the aviation and healthcare industries, audit firms can implement an adequate and effective RCA process. Based on the RCA literature, I argue that audit firms would benefit from a systems-based approach and establishing a no-blame culture.

Problem-solving skills of high school students in chemistry

“…Step four-to identify the root causes-a detailed examination of contributing elements leads to the discovery of the event's underlying process and system concerns (root causes). The circumstances that sparked the analysis should be expected to recur in the final step-recommendation generation and implementation-to generate recommendations for preventing its recurrence [12], [16], [17].…”