What is Step 6 in Change Analysis?

• A. List the possible causes.
• B. Select the most likely causes
• C. Validate the change
• D. Document the incident

Answer: (A)

Change Analysis is about tracing how a change contributed to an incident by examining factors tied to changes in people, processes, equipment, materials, and environment. At this point in the process, you’ve gathered evidence about what changed and how that change could relate to what happened. Listing the possible causes creates a complete set of hypotheses to consider, ensuring nothing is overlooked and giving you a transparent, auditable trail of your reasoning. This comprehensive catalog is essential before you start evaluating which causes are most plausible and deserve deeper testing.

Choosing the most likely causes would come after you’ve enumerated all potential causes, because you need a full set of candidates to compare and rank. Validating the change is about confirming that the change occurred and understanding its effect, which is a later step in the process. Documenting the incident is a reporting activity and not the analytical step focused on identifying potential causes.