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3.7Common Anti-Patterns in RCA
| Anti-Pattern | Problem | Better Approach |
|---|---|---|
| Stopping at the first "why" | The symptom gets fixed; the root cause remains | Keep asking until you reach a systemic cause |
| Blame-shifting | "The vendor's API was bad" avoids asking why you had no fallback | Ask why your system was fragile to the vendor's failure |
| Fixing symptoms, not causes | Adding a band-aid fix without addressing why it was needed | Fix both the immediate issue and the systemic cause |
| Analysis paralysis | Spending weeks on the RCA while corrective actions wait | Timebox the analysis; implement obvious fixes immediately |
| Copy-paste RCA | Using the same generic template without tailoring to the incident | Each RCA should be specific, detailed, and actionable |
| No follow-through | Writing a great RCA and never implementing the actions | Track actions in the sprint backlog with owners and dates |
| Hero worship | "Alice saved us by finding the fix at 3 AM" normalizes heroics | Ask why the system required heroics instead of handling it gracefully |