Synopsis: Cause & Effect Analysis [Fish Bone Diagram] Cause and Effect Diagrams help you to think through causes of a problem thoroughly. Their major benefit is that they push you to consider all possible causes of the problem, rather than just the ones that are most obvious. Cause and Effect Diagrams are also known as Fishbone Diagrams because a completed diagram can look like the skeleton of a fish; and as Ishikawa Diagrams, after Professor Kaoru Ishikawa, a pioneers of quality management, who devised them in the 1960s.