Investigation Planner

Planning is the foundation of a good investigation. The investigation planner helps you to quickly create a comprehensive overview of all the factors you want to investigate, by whom and before what date. The planner consists of six basic elements: Technology, Organization, People, Similar Events, Environment and Time (TOP-SET). For each of these elements investigation items can be made. Basically the Investigation planner gives you a set of reminders to make sure that a possible factor of the incident is not overlooked. The software creates a list of all these items that can be exported or printed and handed out to the members of the investigation team. This list is dynamic; people can select the items as completed and can put in their investigation findings.

Storyboard & Timeline

After the findings are pointed out in the investigation planner, they can be transported to the storyboard. This is by default divided in the six TOP-SET® elements. With ‘digital post-its’ all the facts can be displayed on the storyboard. The storyboard can easily be transformed into a timeline with columns of different time periods. The post-its can then be located on a particular TOP-SET® category and time period at the same time. Just like the categories, the time periods can be adjusted to the user’s whishes.

Root Cause Analysis

After all the facts are collected, the search for the causes can be started. The Root Cause Analysis method is a simple and straightforward incident analysis technique. It provides a lot of freedom in explaining the causality of the incident: what caused what? The Root Cause method aims to get to the bottom of your incident. By simply double clicking your Root Cause diagram can be build very quickly. Items from the storyboard are easily transported to the Root Cause Diagram in order to work efficiently.

Tripod Beta Analysis

Besides making a Root Cause diagram, one can also choose to build a Tripod Beta diagram. This method is more extensive and complex. It focuses on finding the human factor and looking for failures in the organization that can cause human errors.

Investigator 3 provides you with a very user-friendly platform to build your Tripod Beta tree. The software intuitively knows what the next logical step is in your diagram; you just need to double-click on the items. There are also a lot of layout options to give you the ability to customize your tree as you wish.

Multiple analysis diagrams

A recently new feature in Investigator 3 is the ability to draw multiple analysis diagrams. You do not have to choose anymore between making a Root Cause diagram or a Tripod Beta diagram; you can do both!

You can also duplicate your diagram in the same Investigator 3 file. This gives you the opportunity to try different formats and layouts without touching your main diagram. This makes the process more iterative and gives you the ability to brainstorm on your diagram better.

Recommendations

After the diagram is made it is time to make recommendations. In this section you can define all the recommendations that should prevent the incident from happening in the future. You can assign them to different persons, set due dates and priority.

After defining the recommendations you can link them to the items in your diagram. That way you can visualize which recommendations will solve which causes (e.g. failed barriers, root causes). The communication aspect of this feature is very strong.

Word report export

All the information you inserted during the investigation and analysis is generated in a report. The report can be customized by inserting a company logo, watermark, background etc. It can also be exported to all kinds of formats: PDF, Excel, Word.

The Word export is perfectly editable. It already contains an automatically updated content overview. It is also possible to make Word report templates to meet your company standards.

Attachments

In multiple parts of the program it is made possible to add attachments. In the ‘People Involved’ section it is possible to add, for example, interview notes to the witnesses. While working in the Storyboard/Timeline or the Analysis diagram you can add attachments, like pictures, reports and other documents to every item. You can also add attachments to the ‘Report Introduction’ and the ‘Method of Work’ sections.

Languages

Investigator 3 is available in the following languages:

• English
• Dutch
• Portuguese
• German
• Russian
• Romanian

With more languages to come! For every language there is spelling check functionality. When you put your language on default, the software will automatically run in the language that is installed on your computer.