Many important problems must receive attention and be dealt with professionally; but some transcend the usual level of investigation, root cause analysis and reporting. These ‘mega’ problems get their definition by the national scope, population and infrastructure impact and the political consequences. Events of this caliber are set apart by the complexity of the factors, the criteria by which the analysis is conducted, the degree of validation and coordination of data, the amount of public and media focus, and the level of documentation and reporting required.

For example, when the U. S. Congress demanded immediate answers to the causes of a cascading electric power crisis that blacked out the entire U.S. east coast and parts of Canada in 2003. Hundreds of engineers, operations personnel, compliance personnel and operations managers were brought together into one international team to investigate uncover and analyze the systemic causes of that national crisis that had profound national homeland security issues. The U. S. Department of Energy and the North American Electric Reliability Council called upon Decision Systems, Inc, its distributor Cooper Power Systems. And REASON Technology to head up and coordinate the root cause analysis project and international root cause analysis team.

The complexity of the causal threads, the volume of causal data and their relationships, the exacting criteria for accuracy and completeness, the intense scrutiny of processes, procedures and systems, the need for on-going validation in the field, and the need for verifiable, supportable and exact documentation and reporting . . . all combine in the analysis scope of such events to require only the most objective and effective root cause analysis tools and professional skills.

Decision Systems, Inc. has the prerequisite experience, expertise, tools and personnel to professionally manage the root cause analyses of major problems.