When To Use a Fishbone Diagram

Fishbone diagrams work for most entrepreneurs and almost any industry or person having a problem. Professional diagramming software may help you create Fishbone (Cause and Effect or Ishikawa) diagrams. When people are unclear about what is causing an issue, ConceptDraw DIAGRAM will be your lifesaver. When to use a Fishbone diagram? Originally developed as a quality control tool, you may find a Fishbone diagram helpful when used in many cases, such as to analyze a complex problem when there are many causes, for identifying all possible root causes for an effect or a problem, when you need different point of view to look on a problem, to uncover bottlenecks and identify where and why a process doesn't work, for acceleration a process when traditional ways of problem solving consume many time.

Fishbone Diagram

The use of specific types of visual diagrams is effective way to problems solving and decisions making. Fishbone diagram is a graphical tool used for visual and systematical analyzing the relationships between the solved problem and causes affecting its occurrence. It has hierarchical structure and that's why is well-suited for capturing in a mind map for a process of reviewing what branch is a real root cause of a given issue. ConceptDraw Office products and PM solutions offered by ConceptDraw STORE give the powerful help in questions of planning and project management. ConceptDraw DIAGRAM and ConceptDraw MINDMAP applications perfectly suit for designing professional-looking Fishbone Diagrams and allow effectively identify the root causes of quality issues using the Fishbone diagrams. The PM Response solution from the Project Management area of ConceptDraw Solution Park is powerful for improvement the response time to project changes, helps with iteration planning, with solving project challenges and discussing project layout approaches.

Using Fishbone Diagrams for Problem Solving

Problems are obstacles and challenges that one should overcome to reach the goal. They are an inseparable part of any business, and the success of an enterprise often depends on ability to solve all problems effectively. The process of problem solving often uses rational approach, helping to find a suitable solution. Using Fishbone Diagrams for Problem Solving is a productive and illustrative tool to identify the most important factors causing the trouble. ConceptDraw DIAGRAM extended with Fishbone Diagrams solution from the Management area of ConceptDraw Solution Park is a powerful tool for problem solving with Fishbone Ishikawa diagram graphic method.

Communication Tool for Remote Project Management

Communication is the main challenge and the key success factor for remote project management. Communicating visually via Skype you bring all team and customers onto the one page. Remote Presentation for Skype solution for ConceptDraw MINDMAP helps communicate with remote team and customers in visual manner on wide range of issues. Using this solution for regular status meetings allows you to push your team on tasks and keep task statuses up to date.

Draw Fishbone Diagram on MAC Software

The problem solving and decision-making processes are closely linked and crucial for the business and life. There are many tools and techniques for facilitating and improvement these processes, and also enhancement the quality of accepted decisions. One of them is Fisbone Diagram or Cause and Effect diagram. For its construction, you need first define the problem which you need to solve (existing or potential), write it into rectangular and draw to it a horizontal line - a “fish spine”. Then define general types of possible causes like Persons, Materials, Methods, Machinery, Measurements or Environment, and attach them to “spine”. Start brainstorming the possible reasons of failure and connect them to the branches. Professional diagramming ConceptDraw DIAGRAM MAC OSX software offers the Fishbone Diagrams solution which contains templates, samples, and ready Fishbone design objects. Use of them lets effectively identify the possible causes for an effect, realize successfully cause and effect analysis, and instantly draw Fishbone diagram on Mac software.

Affinity Diagram

The Affinity Diagram, also known as a KJ diagram, is a business tool invented for organization the large quantity of ideas and data. It is a part of Seven Management and Planning Tools, it is usually used right after brainstorming to sort large numbers of ideas into the corresponding groups. The Affinity Diagram helps to represent in a better way the structure of large and complex factors which influence on a problem, divides these factors into the smaller and simpler structures, and helps team members to see the patterns and identify possible solutions to problems they have. The diagrams of this type don't show the causal relationships between the factors, but they are designed to prepare the data for holding further analysis of the cause-effect relationships. Another area of Affinity Diagram usage is contextual inquiry as a way to sort observations and notes from field interviews, support call logs, open-ended survey responses organizing, etc. ConceptDraw MINDMAP software offers you the tools for easy holding brainstorming, generation ideas and creation MINDMAP Affinity Diagram.

PROBLEM ANALYSIS. Relations Diagram

Use the Relations Diagram to create a relations factors map and to identify which factors are “drivers” and “indicators”. This diagram identifies causal relationships and determine what factors are causes or effects. ConceptDraw Office suite is a software for relation diagram making.

Decision Making

Decision Making - ConceptDraw Office suite provides visual tools that are given support on the stage of the decision making. The Seven Management and Planning Tools is a set for such diagrams: Affinity Diagram, Relations Diagram, Prioritization Matrix, Root Cause Tree Diagram, Involvement Matrix, PERT Chart, Risk Diagram (PDPC).

SWOT Analysis Software

SWOT analysis is a powerful tool that helps the business professionals to identify the positives and negatives within an organization and in an external environment. TOWS is a variation of SWOT analysis, more focused on external factors and action planning. The correct and full awareness of the situation is important for strategic planning, as well as for decision making and coordination the company's resources and information capabilities of the competitive environment. SWOT and TOWS Matrix Diagrams solution included to ConceptDraw Solution Park makes the ConceptDraw DIAGRAM a powerful SWOT Analysis software and provides a lot of advantages. First of all note the set of ready-made templates that help to identify the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats the most quickly and effectively, and the choice of outputs to present the analysis results as SWOT or TOWS matrix. The well-designed SWOT matrix samples and examples included to SWOT and TOWS Matrix Diagrams solution illustrate the results you can achieve using it and also can be used as a good start for your own matrices.