/five

allowed-tools: Read, Write, mcp__sequential-thinking__sequentialthinking
name: "Five"
description: "Apply five why's root cause analysis to a problem"
author: "wcygan"
tags: ["tool"]
version: "1.0.0"
created_at: "2025-07-14T00:00:00Z"
updated_at: "2025-07-14T00:00:00Z"

Context

• Problem description: $ARGUMENTS
• Session ID: !`gdate +%s%N`
• Analysis file: /tmp/five-whys-$SESSION_ID.md

Your task

PROCEDURE five_whys_analysis():

STEP 1: Initialize analysis

• Parse the problem statement from $ARGUMENTS
• Create structured analysis document
• Set iteration counter to 1

STEP 2: Comprehensive root cause analysis with parallel investigation

**FOR complex problems (multi-system or organizational issues):**

**CRITICAL: Deploy 5 parallel sub-agents for comprehensive causal analysis (6-8x faster than sequential analysis)**

IMMEDIATELY launch parallel investigation agents:

• **Agent 1: Technical Analysis**: Investigate technical system failures, infrastructure issues, and code problems
• Focus: System logs, error traces, performance metrics, configuration issues
• Tools: Pattern analysis, failure correlation, dependency mapping
• Expected: Technical root causes with evidence and reproduction steps

• **Agent 2: Process Analysis**: Examine workflow, procedural failures, and operational issues
• Focus: Process documentation, workflow gaps, communication breakdowns
• Tools: Process mapping, bottleneck identification, stakeholder analysis
• Expected: Process improvement opportunities and organizational causes

• **Agent 3: Human Factors Analysis**: Analyze decision-making, knowledge gaps, and behavioral patterns
• Focus: Training gaps, cognitive biases, decision context, expertise availability
• Tools: Decision tree analysis, knowledge audit, competency mapping
• Expected: Human-centered causes and training/support needs

• **Agent 4: Environmental Analysis**: Investigate external factors, market conditions, and contextual influences
• Focus: Market changes, regulatory requirements, competitive pressures, resource constraints
• Tools: Environmental scanning, PESTLE analysis, constraint identification
• Expected: External factors and systemic influences beyond direct control

• **Agent 5: Historical Pattern Analysis**: Examine past incidents, trend analysis, and recurring patterns
• Focus: Incident history, pattern recognition, trend analysis, preventive measures
• Tools: Historical data analysis, pattern matching, predictive indicators
• Expected: Recurring themes and systemic issues requiring long-term solutions

**Sub-Agent Coordination:**

• Each agent saves findings to `/tmp/five-whys-agents-$SESSION_ID/`
• Parallel investigation provides 6-8x speed improvement over sequential analysis
• Cross-agent correlation identifies multi-factorial root causes
• Results synthesized into unified causal chain with supporting evidence

**FOR simple problems (single-system or straightforward issues):**

EXECUTE traditional iterative questioning loop: FOR iteration IN [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]:

• ASK: "Why does [current problem/answer] occur?"
• THINK deeply about potential causes
• IDENTIFY the most likely cause
• DOCUMENT the answer with supporting reasoning
• UPDATE current_answer = this iteration's answer
• IF root cause is clearly identified before iteration 5:
• BREAK from loop

STEP 3: Synthesize findings

• REVIEW the chain of causes
• IDENTIFY the root cause (typically the final "why" answer)
• ANALYZE systemic issues revealed
• GENERATE actionable recommendations

STEP 4: Create comprehensive report

• Problem statement
• Five why's chain with reasoning
• Root cause identification
• Contributing factors
• Recommended solutions
• Preventive measures

STEP 5: Save analysis

• Write complete analysis to /tmp/five-whys-$SESSION_ID.md
• Present summary to user
• Highlight key insights and next steps

Analysis structure

# Five Why's Analysis

## Problem Statement

[Original problem description]

## Analysis Chain

### Why 1: [First why question]

**Answer**: [First answer]
**Reasoning**: [Supporting evidence and logic]

### Why 2: [Second why question based on answer 1]

**Answer**: [Second answer]
**Reasoning**: [Supporting evidence and logic]

[Continue for all iterations...]

## Root Cause

[Identified root cause with explanation]

## Recommendations

1. Immediate actions
2. Long-term solutions
3. Preventive measures

## Next Steps

[Actionable items based on analysis]

Best practices

• Ask "why" about the answer from the previous iteration
• Focus on process and system failures, not individual blame
• Look for actionable root causes within your control
• Consider multiple contributing factors
• Validate assumptions with evidence when possible

Example

Problem: "Website is slow"

1. Why? → Server response time is high 2. Why? → Database queries are taking too long 3. Why? → Queries aren't using indexes 4. Why? → Recent schema changes removed indexes 5. Why? → No index validation in deployment process Root cause: Missing deployment validation checks