The standard for project management

Affinity diagrams.

 Described in Section 5.2.2.5. Affinity diagrams can organize potential causes of defects into 

groups showing areas that should be focused on the most.

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Cause-and-effect diagrams.

 Cause-and-effect diagrams are also known as fishbone diagrams, why-why 

diagrams, or Ishikawa diagrams. This type of diagram breaks down the causes of the problem statement identified 

into discrete branches, helping to identify the main or root cause of the problem. Figure 8-9 is an example of a 

cause-and-effect diagram.

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Flowcharts. 

Described in Section 8.1.2.5. Flowcharts show a series of steps that lead to a defect.

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Histograms.

 Histograms show a graphical representation of numerical data. Histograms can show the number 

of defects per deliverable, a ranking of the cause of defects, the number of times each process is noncompliant, 

or other representations of project or product defects.

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