RealityCharting

Pro: So many ‘Pro’s’ but I will limit my comments to just two: 1. RealityCharting drives me to consider solutions I otherwise might have missed: If I follow the process behind the Apollo Root Cause Analysis methodology and ensure that I map both the Actions that contributed to the problem as well as the Conditions that existed that allowed those actions to happen… it forces me to take my problem down two very different cause paths. In turn, each of these paths provide opportunities for very different types of solutions; solutions I may have missed without the use of a tool that walks me step by step through the problem solving process. 2. RealityCharting as a Project Management Tool: The Cause Map generated from using RealityCharting provides me with the most comprehensive way to visually pull a very large project together. When I’m mapping out the many contributors to a horizontal stabilizer or pressure dome issue and have my team investigating everything from detail supplier, tier-one assembly supplier, transportation, and my own installation processes – it’s easy to lose track of where you are and how these seemingly unrelated efforts all tie in to helping me eliminate my problem. RealityCharting helps me manage my complex problems in a very visual way.

Quickly learned. Logical. Involves the affected and involved personnel, and historically they understand and appreciate the analyses. Makes it easy to bring in another analyst either to help or take over as required in the case of an emergency. Excellent tool for keeping management and oversight up to speed on the progress of the analysis. That greatly speeds final approval by management and oversight. The analyst is required to identify the evidence that supports each causal block. The product is indisputable when complete. The analysis team and management can discuss when a causal path appears non-productive.

The way of thinking is a bit new but indied easy to adapt. Also easy to get started with the software.

There are a lot of great features within this package such as: It is very easy to put a lot of causes on a chart very quickly. This can be helpful if your building a chart in front of a group. The brainstorming section makes it simple and quick to transfer causes off of a manual chart because you just type and enter. After capturing them it is a simple process to drag and drop them into the main program. The software has many customization items that can be turned on or off depending on my preferences and I especially like the ability to add my own items to the problem definition since problem solving is slightly different for everyone. I also like the ability to choose the colors for the different types of causes because it helps me quickly see where I might be deficient in the process. The ability to link documents to causes for reference or evidence makes it easy to check things after an analysis is complete and the whole package with references can be emailed to others The Rules check helps me make sure I have fulfilled all of the requirements of the process but also allows me to bypass things since it isn't always cut and dried I like the way the software takes all of the information I have put in and turns it into a report that is usually 95% complete and needs very little input to finish off. This saves me from having to generate another report. Lastly I like the solution assessment function because it is objective instead of subjective

The software provide an easy to use interface that is supported through easy step-by-step examples to get you up and running in the shortest amount of time. The online videos and RealityCharting Learning Center functionality is a definite plus for new users to gain skills quickly to reduce learning curve duration. The software provides contextual help to guide you along the path to create a robust root cause analysis and counter measures to prevent event based problems from reoccurring. The software supports both PC and Mac version that are consistently the same, which is a big plus for multiple platform environments. A big plus is the wizard feature that provides transparency for the overall project progress. Software menus provide easy navigation to various functionality elements of the Apollo Root Cause Analysis methodology. If you are looking for a robust system methodology for problem solving this software provides the structure necessary analyze event based problems in a novel way that yields real win solutions to prevent recurrence of the problem.