Do you or your team often struggle to unravel the patterns or trends in your data sets despite multiple visualizations and tools?
There are several ways to represent data and make it visually appealing, such as using PowerPoint, creating a Pareto chart, and using data flow diagrams. However, none will do the trick unless you go granular and unravel the reasons behind the issues.
Fishbone diagram, also known as cause-and-effect diagram or Ishikawa diagram, is a powerful visual tool for identifying and pinpointing the root cause of a problem.
Looking to take your existing data and create a Fishbone diagram in Microsoft Excel? There is a way to do it manually, but it might result in a fishbone diagram with too many bones and the wrong shape. 😕
With a fishbone diagram template, you can eliminate all these problems and complete the task quickly without jumping through multiple hoops.
In this blog, we will find out about the best Fishbone diagram template Excel has and discover some alternatives that are much more intuitive and customizable.
Free Fishbone Diagram Templates for Excel
🐟 What is a fishbone diagram?
A fishbone diagram template provides a clear structure for your data, allowing you to categorize potential causes into different categories and sub-causes, such as primary and secondary causes. This problem-solving method lets you get a clear picture of the factors contributing to a specific case and address them immediately.
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat Makes a Good Fishbone Diagram Template?
A good Fishbone diagram template simplifies the process of identifying and analyzing the root causes behind any issue. It should ideally have the following characteristics:
- Clarity and structure: Select a template that outlines the main problem statement and provides a logical structure for categorizing potential causes
- Flexibility: Make sure the template is adaptable to various types of problems and allows you to edit and personalize it to fit specific needs
- Ease of use: Go for a template that is intuitive and easy to navigate, making it ideal even for non-technical users
- Collaboration features: As with any root cause analysis tools, the ideal template should support collaboration among team members, enabling real-time input and feedback
- Integration capabilities: Pick a fishbone diagram template that integrates seamlessly with other project management tools or whiteboarding software, enhancing efficiency and workflow
Summarize this article for me please5 Free Fishbone Diagram Templates in Excel
Finding the right fishbone diagram maker for Microsoft Excel can be tricky. To skip over the research, we have curated a list of the top Fishbone diagram templates in Microsoft Excel:
1. Excel Fishbone Diagram Template by DMAICTools.com
Let’s start the list with the popular Fishbone Diagram Excel Template by DMAICTools.com.
This template includes a comprehensive list of features to help you create fishbone diagrams. It includes predefined categories, instructions, color-coded branches, and various formatting options to enhance visual clarity, making it perfect for beginners.
What you’ll love about it:
- Get an easy-to-use template that includes predefined categories like Systems, Equipment, Environment, People, Policies, Place, and Cause to help you identify possible causes for your operational issues
- Ability to easily add, remove, or modify branches to suit the specific problem being analyzed
- Leverage the various formatting options that allow you to adjust font size, style, alignment, and color coding to help you personalize the template for your specific brand guidelines
Ideal use case
This template is ideal for teams working in quality control, process improvement, or manufacturing environments. It could be used to identify root causes of defects, bottlenecks, or performance issues in various processes.
2. Excel Fishbone Diagram Template by CIToolKit
If you are looking for a simple and user-friendly approach to creating fishbone or Ishikawa diagrams in Excel, then the Excel Fishbone Diagram Template by CIToolKit is a great option. With its clean layout, clear instructions, and minimal customization options, this template is perfect for those who prefer a straightforward approach.
What you’ll love about it:
- Get a simple structure with a clear problem statement and branches to help you categorize various causes
- A clean layout for easy use and quick updates
- Edit main categories and text boxes to suit your specific narrative, helping you truly customize the template for your service industry
Ideal use case
This template is useful for individuals or small teams who require a no-frills solution for designing fishbone diagrams. It is particularly useful for those who are new to using this technique or prefer a more streamlined approach.
3. Excel Cause and Effect Diagram Template by Vertex42
Another easy-to-use and implement template, the Fishbone Diagram Template by Vertex42, comes with the bare minimum—no installation, no macros, just the structure that is customizable for your specific requirements.
The worksheet has a blank canvas and instruction text, which will help you understand how to implement the fishbone diagram in your business process.
What you’ll love about it:
- Get started with the pre-defined and easy-to-edit layout
- Use conditional formatting to add or remove bones in the diagram easily
- Add your own category to understand primary causes better and tailor the diagram to the specific problem being analyzed
Ideal use case
This template is perfect for teams working on various projects or initiatives that require a flexible and customizable root cause analysis solution. For example, you can use this across fields such as engineering, project management, and quality assurance.
4. Excel Ishikawa Fishbone Diagram Template by QIMacros
The QIMacros Excel Ishikawa Fishbone Diagram Template is designed for detailed root cause analysis. It offers more comprehensive grouping sections if you want to explore causes and potential solutions for your business operations fully.
The template includes features such as hierarchical levels, conditional formatting, and custom categories, making it suitable for you to draw in-depth data analysis from complicated issues.
What you’ll love about it
- Get multiple levels of bones, representing different levels of causation and multiple sub-causes
- Apply conditional formatting to highlight specific branches or relationships based on defined criteria
- Export the fishbone diagram in various formats, like PDF or image files, making it ideal for sharing or presentation purposes
Ideal use case
This template is best for engineering teams or quality control departments that need to investigate the root causes of technical or production failures.
5. Fishbone Diagram Template by Hubspot
While most Ishikawa diagram templates can be used for multiple industries, they often get too complicated for basic root cause analysis. Hubspot’s Fishbone diagram template for Excel and Google Sheets falls under the category of a simple template that could be edited to add shapes and arrows according to user needs.
This sleek template features a drag-and-drop interface, real-time collaboration, and integration with other HubSpot tools, making it ideal for brainstorming sessions and whiteboarding.
What you’ll love about it
- Get pre-set categories such as People, Methods, Environment, etc, to help you get started quickly
- Use the intuitive layout that allows you to easily easily add, remove, and rearrange branches using a simple drag-and-drop mechanism
- Integrate with Hubspot and other CRM tools to collaborate on the same diagram with your teams
Ideal use case
This template is perfect for marketing teams or service industry professionals looking to analyze customer service issues or process inefficiencies quickly and visually.
Summarize this article for me pleaseLimitations of Using Excel for Fishbone Diagrams
Although several Excel fishbone diagram templates are great for problem-solving and drawing root cause analysis, they only do surface-level analytics. For more detailed workflow automation, this often feels limiting, with issues like:
- Limited formatting options: Google Sheets and Excel have fewer formatting options compared to dedicated project management chart tools or specialized templates, which create visually appealing and informative diagrams
- Lack of collaboration features: While Microsoft Excel online offers several collaborative features, it may not be tailored to your specific needs, potentially hindering teamwork and efficiency
- Integration challenges: Integrating fishbone diagrams created in Excel with other project management tools or data analysis software may require additional steps or workarounds
To mitigate these issues, consider Excel alternatives to fishbone diagram templates that incorporate project management and data visualization tools.
Summarize this article for me pleaseAlternative Fishbone Diagram Templates
A fishbone diagram must be clear, organized, and easy to use. This is where ClickUp’s customizable templates come into play.
Whether you’re dealing with over-simplification, time-consuming analysis, or subjectivity, ClickUp offers pre-built templates that optimize your process and ensure you capture every important detail without getting bogged down.
Here is a look at some of the top fishbone diagram templates from ClickUp:
1. ClickUp Fishbone Diagram Template
If you need a template that can tackle complicated projects, the ClickUp Fishbone Diagram Template is designed just for you. This template offers a structure that will help you break down complex issues into manageable categories, enabling your teams to pinpoint what works and what doesn’t.
Whether you’re tackling a simple issue or working on a complex project, this fishbone template allows you to clearly define the problem, list potential causes, and assign tasks to team members for follow-up.
Plus, with ClickUp’s collaborative features, such as ClickUp Chat and assigned comments, every team member contributes effectively, making the analysis more comprehensive and reducing the chances of overlooking key factors.
What you’ll love about it:
- Categorize problems and their root causes easily into distinct pre-defined bones for clearer analysis
- Customize fishbone diagrams within the ClickUp platform, tailoring them to your specific needs and problem domains
- Visually represent relationships between causes and effects to help teams start thinking and understand the underlying and related factors contributing to a problem
- Assign actionable tasks directly from the diagram, helping your team focus on addressing the most critical causes first
Ideal use case
This fishbone template is an excellent tool for teams working on complex projects, process improvement initiatives, or problem-solving efforts.
2. ClickUp Root Cause Analysis Template
While most templates for analyzing root causes focus on visualization, the ClickUp Root Cause Analysis Template takes a more head-on approach.
It defines the root causes into three categories: incoming issues, in progress, and solved issues. Each category helps you get a clear picture of the issues currently in the pipeline, additional issues that may come up, and the ones you have already dealt with in a single dashboard.
Use this template to determine improvements in your problem-solving process and create a more detailed strategy to deal with it.
What you’ll love about it:
- Conduct an in-depth analysis and list down all your problems into actionable categories
- Develop targeted action plans to address the identified root causes, ensuring that corrective measures are implemented effectively
- Monitor the progress of your action plans and evaluate the outcomes to assess the effectiveness of your root cause analysis efforts
- Track and improve the analysis progress with tags, emails, dependency warnings, time-tracking capabilities, and more
Ideal use case
This template is best suited to teams seeking a comprehensive approach to root cause analysis, combining various techniques to address complex problems head-on.
3. ClickUp IT Root Cause Analysis Template
The ClickUp IT Root Cause Analysis Template is designed to help technology leaders, project managers, and teams plan and manage their tech initiatives effectively.
From software updates to infrastructure changes, this template lays out a clear path for problem-solving within the IT environment, ensuring all stakeholders stay aligned on the follow-up tasks and timelines.
What you’ll love about it:
- Use predefined categories and bones relevant to IT issues to streamline the analysis process and identify root causes more efficiently
- Connect the template with your IT service management tools to track incidents, changes, and problem resolutions
- Observe progress on each item with built-in tracking features, helping you stay on top of deliverables and adjust priorities if necessary
- Leverage the insights gained from root cause analysis to identify areas for improvement, optimize IT processes, and enhance overall service delivery
Ideal use case
As the name suggests, this template is built for IT teams that want to conduct in-depth analyses of their technical issues.
4. ClickUp Cause & Effect Whiteboard Template
If you are looking for a fishbone diagram template to make your brainstorming sessions more efficient, the ClickUp Cause and Effect Whiteboard Template is your best bet.
This template provides a visual space for teams to brainstorm and create mind maps to understand the relationships between primary and secondary causes in various scenarios. It fosters creativity and collaboration, allowing teams to effectively capture ideas and analyze them visually.
What you’ll love about it:
- Create a clear visual representation of how different causes lead to specific effects, making complex issues easier to understand
- Encourage brainstorming sessions where team members contribute their insights and ideas in real-time
- Allow multiple users to access the whiteboard simultaneously, promoting collaboration and collective problem-solving
- Determine key areas for improvement and actionable steps to address issues
Ideal use case
This template is ideal for remote teams that want a cause-and-effect diagram template to facilitate brainstorming sessions, remote collaboration, and situations where a more informal and creative environment works best.
5. ClickUp 5 Whys Template
The ClickUp 5 Whys Template is a powerful tool designed to facilitate root cause analysis through a simple yet effective questioning technique.
By using the 5 Whys methodology in your problem-solving, teams drill down into the underlying causes of a problem, moving beyond symptoms to identify the root issues.
What you’ll love about it:
- Integrate with other features on ClickUp, including Calendar, Lists, Workload, Gantt, and more
- Record your questions and answers within the template, producing a clear and traceable record of your analysis process
- Collaborate in real-time with team members to gather insights and perspectives, fostering a team-oriented problem-solving culture
- Focus on solutions derived from the identified root causes, leading to more effective problem resolution and process enhancements
Ideal use case
This template is perfect for all teams and industries who want to combine the 5 Whys technique with fishbone diagrams to analyze the hidden factors of issues in a structured and systematic method.
6. ClickUp Performance Improvement Action Plan Template
The ClickUp Performance Improvement Action Plan Template helps you objectively analyze the performance of a team or a project, identifying areas for improvement.
Use it to identify performance gaps and develop targeted strategies to elevate team and organizational performance.
What you’ll love about it:
- Structure your action plans around clearly defined performance gaps and goals, ensuring that all team members are aligned and focused on common objectives
- Establish KPIs and metrics to measure progress, enabling teams to track improvements and adjust strategies as necessary
- Link relevant documents, data, and resources directly within the template, ensuring that all information is easily accessible during the implementation phase
- Foster a culture of continuous improvement by regularly reviewing and updating the action plan based on results and feedback
Ideal use case
This template is ideal for project managers, team leaders, and process improvement specialists. For example, this template could be used for performance reviews, quality assessments, or other initiatives aimed at enhancing operational efficiency and effectiveness.
7. ClickUp Project Retrospective Template
The Project Retrospective Template by ClickUp is an essential tool for teams looking to reflect on their project outcomes and identify lessons learned. This template enables structured discussions about what went well, what did not, and where teams should work to improve future projects.
By capturing insights and feedback, you’ll be able to encourage a culture of continuous learning and improvement within your organization.
What you’ll love about it:
- Guide your team through a comprehensive evaluation of the project lifecycle, ensuring that all relevant aspects are considered
- Enhance project retrospective tracking with the help of AI, automation, dependencies, tagging, and more
- Capture key takeaways and recommendations to implement in future projects, promoting a proactive approach to project management
- Leverage ClickUp Tasks to understand individual ownership, project metrics, and outcomes, improving the discussion with concrete evidence
Ideal use case
This template is suitable for project managers, team members, and stakeholders who evaluate project success and areas for improvement.
Summarize this article for me pleaseThe ClickUp Advantage for Fishbone Diagrams
Simply put, fishbone diagrams are powerful visual tools for identifying the root causes of problems.
While Excel and Sheets can be used to create these diagrams, they have severe limitations when it comes to real-time collaboration, customizable fields, visualization constraints, and integration issues with other project management tools.
Enter ClickUp’s fishbone diagram templates, which offer a more efficient and collaborative approach, empowering teams to find the answers without going through heaps of data and tables.
So, if you are looking for a comprehensive and collaborative tool for analyzing the data to the last detail, ClickUp is the ideal solution. Sign up for ClickUp today and experience the difference!
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