drill-root-causes

Purpose

Move from symptoms to causal structure using complementary root-cause representations and validity checks.

Input contract

required: [symptoms_or_undesirable_effects]
optional: [evidence, system_boundary, known_causes]
constraints: [each causal edge needs an evidence or assumption label]

Execution protocol

Do not perform called SOP operations inline; each loaded SOP owns its contract and thresholds.

1. You MUST load skill drill-five-whys to drill repeated whys.
2. You MUST load skill decompose-ishikawa to decompose six causal categories.
3. You MUST load skill build-current-reality-tree to build the current-reality tree.
4. You MUST load skill validate-causal-link to validate its causal links. If the root-cause chain depends on untested assumptions, consider assumption-stress-test as the next tactic. Deviation: use fewer representations only when the input explicitly limits scope; record omitted views and reason.

Output contract

produces: [why_chain, ishikawa_map, current_reality_tree, root_cause_set]
delta_fields: [findings, assumption_updates, uncertainties, decisions, open_questions]

Thresholds and quality gates

• B: at least one symptom-to-root path is represented in each selected model; every retained edge is checked for direction and support.

Failure and counterexamples

Do not call a correlation a root cause, or stop at a label that cannot explain the observed effects.

Provenance map

• root-cause-drilling, causal-tree-building, five-whys-drilling, ishikawa-decomposition, current-reality-tree: resolved/concept per exact lookup.
• Status: all five exact names resolved.

Preserved source criteria ledger

• Preserve five-whys, 6M Ishikawa, TOC current-reality-tree, and causal-link validation.

Context checkpoint / Delta notes

Append symptom changes, causal edges, competing roots, and validation failures.