Root Cause Analysis is a systematic process for identifying “root causes” of problems and an approach for responding to them. It is based on the idea that effective management requires more than “putting out fires” for problems that develop, but finding a way to prevent them. It helps pinpoint contributing factors to a problem so that they can effectively be reduced or eliminated. Root Cause Analysis helps organizations avoid the tendency to single out one factor to arrive at the fastest resolution. It also helps to avoid treating symptoms rather than actual, underlying problems that contribute to the real problem. 

The primary goal of using RCA is to analyze problems to identify what happened, how it happened, and why it happened so that actions to prevent recurrence are developed.