USF St. Petersburg campus Faculty Publications
Root cause analysis in forensic organizations.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2016
ISSN
1940-9044
Abstract
Forensic science service providers are high reliability organizations and must manage their risk to ensure consistent quality. Investigations into unexpected outcomes, even positive ones, provides feedback into a system of continuous quality and improvement: the “why” is more important than the “what” for an organization to learn and grow. These investigations seek the root causes of the outcome and are called Root Cause Analysis (RCA). Various methods of RCA are available from other high reliability industries. The current article offers a method of root cause analysis for forensic agencies that hybridizes typical quality tools (Plan-Do-Act-Check cycle and “5 Whys”) with a decision matrix (simple, complicated, complex, and chaotic) to help streamline the process.
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Recommended Citation
Houck, M.M. (2016). Risk, reward, and redemption: Root cause analysis in forensic organizations. Forensic Science Policy & Management: An International Journal, 7(3-4), 106-112. doi: 10.1080/19409044.2016.1224278
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Comments
Citation only. Full-text article is available through licensed access provided by the publisher. Members of the USF System may access the full-text of the article through the authenticated link provided.