Representing causal mechanism of defective designs: exploration through case studies

To learn lessons from past defective designs, it is best to analyse multiple past defect events using a common classification framework. This may reveal patterns of cause and effect that are rarely evident in single-case investigations. This paper aims to explore the causal mechanism of defective design by means of a case-studies approach. By analysing 119 defect cases from selected 101 projects, the paper presents which active failures and influencing factors that are recurrently responsible for the defective designs. More importantly, with the use of correspondence analysis it reveals five patterns of failure pathways that explain how and why defective design can occur. In the patterns, defective designs are classified into team, major, and minor errors, in which team and major errors are relatively influenced more by organizational factors, whereas minor errors by workplace factors. Countermeasures are recommended to manage the recurrent defective designs.