Root Cause Pattern — Enterprise Notes

Pattern: Root Cause
Component: enterprise-notes.md
Version: 1.1 | Updated: 2026-07-16

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Accountability without blame

Enterprises still need owners and due dates. That is accountability for system change, not a finding of personal fault. Keep HR/legal investigations on a separate track when required.

External vs internal artifacts

Customer-facing or regulator-facing summaries may need legal/comms review. Publish the internal blameless RCA first; redact as policy requires for external versions — do not let external softening delete prevention actions internally.

AI / model incidents

When prompts, tools, or providers contributed, include version pins and evaluation gaps in contributing factors and prevention (golden cases, regression gates). Still identify one systemic root cause (e.g. “no canary abort on quality metric X”).

Anti-claim

Completing this RCA template is not ISO, NIST, or regulatory certification. It is an operating record of learning and commitments.