Ishikawa Diagram

What Does Ishikawa Diagram Mean?

An Ishikawa diagram is a graph that shows the various causes of a certain effect. It is also known as a fish bone diagram due to its resemblance to a fish skeleton. In the diagram, the causes flow from left to right to represent certain effects.

Techopedia Explains Ishikawa Diagram

An Ishikawa diagram is useful for software testing because it can show the various causes and effects of software failure.

The graph shows how a cause relates to a certain effect in a visual way, which can be hard to document by itself. For example, in a C program, there might be a null pointer being referenced. It would be diagrammed with the null pointer as the cause and the program crash as the effect.These graphs can be created by entire teams to let them visualize problems in software and how to fix them.

Related Reading

Margaret Rouse

Technology Expert

Margaret é uma premiada redatora e professora conhecida por sua habilidade de explicar assuntos técnicos complexos para um público empresarial não técnico. Nos últimos vinte anos, suas definições de TI foram publicadas pela Que em uma enciclopédia de termos tecnológicos e citadas em artigos do New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine e Discovery Magazine. Ela ingressou na Techopedia em 2011. A ideia de Margaret de um dia divertido é ajudar os profissionais de TI e de negócios a aprenderem a falar os idiomas altamente especializados uns dos outros.

All Articles by Margaret Rouse