Description:

This Master Prompt establishes the evidence and data foundation of Root Cause Analysis (RCA). Before causal factors can be identified or root causes inferred, the investigation must establish a trustworthy reconstruction of what occurred, where and when it occurred, how the system differed from its normal operating state, which variables or events changed first, and how abnormalities evolved through time. The selected literature demonstrates the importance of multivariate monitoring data, fault-detection evidence, operational knowledge and temporal information for progressing from detection toward RCA. For example, multivariate process RCA commonly separates fault detection and diagnosis from subsequent causal analysis, emphasizing that identification of abnormal variables is an input to—not a substitute for—root-cause determination.