Five whys definition

” In ‘five whys,’ you focus on getting to the root cause of an issue by repeatedly asking ‘why’ to drill deeper toward the underlying cause. It’s important to note that this is ‘five whys,’ NOT ‘five whos.’ — Zach Nies

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is 5 Whys, a team exercise for identifying the root cause of a problem. 5 Whys was originally used in manufacturing to help management identify why equipment failed. It’s used in Six Sigma during DMAIC exercises and in Agile retrospectives.