Software Diagnostics Institute

When we introduced A.P.M. patterns-based root cause analysis methodology (Artefacts. Patterns. Mechanisms.), it may have made an impression of a waterfall-type process with some iterations between artefact collection and diagnostic analysis when collected artefacts are not good. However, software post-construction problem solving is usually iterative, with memory dumps and software logs collected again and again after the preliminary root cause analysis.

To illustrate the iterative nature of the process we first name its stages as Artefact Acquisition for Artefacts, Artefact Analysis for Patterns (diagnostics), and Analysis of Analysis for Mechanisms (root cause analysis):

Now we rearrange these AA stages:

After the preliminary root cause analysis (Analysis of Analysis) we may need to gather more artefacts for further diagnostics and more precise RCA, and this is reflected in more focused stages: