How to Draw a Fishbone Diagram

A Fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram is also called cause-and-effect diagram. Fishbone diagram is often used in business to determine the cause of some problem. The diagram illustrates the main causes and sub-causes leading to an event. The main goal of the Fishbone diagram is to illustrate in a graphical way the relationship between a given outcome and all the factors that influence this outcome. The complete diagram resembles a fish skeleton as its name implies. The ability to create a Fishbone Diagram is supported by the Fishbone Diagram solution. The easiest way to draw a diagram is to edit a template.

1. Run ConceptDraw DIAGRAM, reveal the Fishbone Diagram in the Solutions panel.
2. Select the Fishbone Diagram template from the list.

3. Fill out the template by following the prompts in the yellow callouts.
4. You can customize the template according to your own case by adding/removing “bones”, sub-cases, and other elements.
5. To change the length of a backbone line, click on it and drag the green handles.

6. Use the Action button menu to modify the “skeleton” of a diagram. To open the menu select an object and click the  button in the upper right corner of the object.

7. Add text to diagram. Click the element in the diagram and type.
8. When the diagram is completed, use the Layers panel to hide prompts.

Result: Ishikawa Diagram is a team brainstorming tool used to identify potential root causes to problems.