Building RCA Builder: A Practical App for Real-World Root Cause Analysis

When it comes to incident analysis and operational risk, most teams fall into two extremes — either overcomplicating the RCA process, or skipping it altogether.

I work in IT Governance and Compliance, and I’ve seen firsthand how RCA reporting often becomes an afterthought, especially in fast-paced tech environments.

So I built RCA Builder — a Streamlit-based toolkit for generating simple, structured RCA reports that actually get used.

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Why I Built It

I wanted a tool that:

• Doesn’t require Jira or Confluence to get started

• Guides users through industry-standard RCA formats

• Generates Markdown output for easy sharing and auditing

• Can be adapted by tech, DevOps, and GRC teams alike

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Features and Formats

RCA Builder walks you through three common root cause analysis methods:

1. 5 Whys

Prompt-driven form to dig into the core problem using 5 iterations of "Why?"

2. Fishbone Diagram

Text-based capture of cause categories like People, Process, Technology, and more

3. Postmortem Review

Standard format for incident retrospectives and learning reviews

Each method includes:

• A clean form interface (built in Streamlit)

• Markdown preview

• Downloadable report

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What I Used

• Streamlit for the web interface

• Python for logic and export functions

• Markdown for formatting reports

• GitHub for version control and open-source hosting

Folder structure is modular, and the export logic lives in a shared utils/ file so it’s easy to extend or customize.

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What You Can Do With It

If you’re a:

• DevOps or SRE engineer who needs to write RCAs quickly

• IT Governance lead preparing for audits

• GRC analyst building tooling for compliance teams

This app gives you a structured way to standardize and simplify the process.

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What’s Next

I plan to:

• Add PDF export

• Build in Slack/Jira/GitHub integration

• Allow RCA save/load via JSON or database

• Deploy via Streamlit Cloud for public access

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Try It or Fork It

🔗 View RCA Builder on GitHub

This is a tool designed from lived experience — from a builder who works in governance, not just someone writing code in isolation.

Feel free to fork it, test it, or suggest features. I built this because I needed it — but I know others do too.

Build useful tools. Write clear reports. Make better decisions.

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🔗 neviarrawlinson.hashnode.dev