Walking Through an RCA with Technical and Governance Lens

Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is more than a post-incident checkbox. When done well, it uncovers not just what went wrong but why the systems in place allowed it to happen in the first place.

Most teams focus solely on the technical root cause. But if you're working in governance, risk, and compliance (GRC), you need to look deeper.

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What Most RCA Reports Miss

A failed script or API error might be the symptom but it’s rarely the true cause.

Ask yourself:

• Why did the system allow the failure?

• Why wasn’t it caught earlier?

• Was a governance process missing, skipped, or unclear?

Governance starts where technical monitoring ends.

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My Dual-Lens RCA Approach

Every RCA I lead uses two perspectives:

1. Technical Lens

Focus on the mechanics:

• What system failed?

• What caused the issue?

• Were alerts or logs available?

• What was the sequence of events?

2. Governance Lens

Zoom out:

• What process failed or was missing?

• Were change reviews completed?

• Did vendor contracts include SLAs?

• Was documentation or training lacking?

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Example RCA: Silent API Failure

Incident:
A third-party API failed silently during customer onboarding. Users were affected, but support teams weren't notified.

Technical RCA:

• The external API returned a 500 error.

• Internal systems didn’t trigger alerts or logs.

• Failure was invisible to end-users and staff.

Governance Gaps:

• No SLA requirements documented.

• No monitoring policy for third-party integrations.

• No post-deployment QA or rollback planning.

Remediation Actions:

• Added alerts for failed responses.

• Required SLAs and monitoring for all vendor systems.

• Updated change management to include impact scoring and rollback validation.

Takeaway:
The technical fix was fast but without governance changes, the risk would remain.

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My RCA Template and Tools

Here’s how I structure RCAs for clarity and accountability:

• Timeline of Events

• Technical Breakdown

• Governance Findings

• Risk Rating

• Remediation Actions

• Control Improvements

Tools I use:

• Jira for action tracking

• Confluence for documentation

• Loom for async walkthroughs

• Slack for real-time escalation

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Best Practices for RCA with a Governance Mindset

• Avoid blame
  Focus on systems and processes, not individuals.

• Document visibly
  Keep RCA reports easy to find and share. Use a shared repository or Confluence hub.

• Treat every RCA as a chance to improve controls
  Every RCA should lead to at least one new or revised process, policy, or control.

• Tie incidents back to risk
  Use your RCA to improve how risks are tracked, mitigated, or escalated in the future.

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If you only look at technical failures, you'll miss what really caused the issue.

GRC professionals should treat RCA as a strategic opportunity to strengthen governance. When you combine technical analysis with a governance lens, you build systems that not only recover from failure but become more resilient over time.