Incident Investigation Professional
Incident Investigation Professional
Incident Investigation Professional
Course Overview
Incident Investigation
Evidence, Root Cause, and Learning After the Event
Investigations fail when they stop at human error, and organizations then repeat the same event. This course builds disciplined investigative practice, from securing the scene and preserving evidence through cognitive interviewing and structured root cause methods, to SMART corrective actions, defensible reports and lessons that genuinely change how work is done.
What You Will Learn
The main objectives of the course are:
- Define incidents, near misses and dangerous occurrences.
- Build a reporting system people actually trust.
- Meet OSHA, RIDDOR and ISO 45001 notification duties.
- Apply causation models including Swiss Cheese and barriers.
- Scale and lead the investigation process.
- Secure the scene and maintain chain of custody.
- Gather evidence using the four Ps framework.
- Conduct cognitive interviews free of leading questions.
- Distinguish immediate, underlying and root causes.
- Apply 5 Whys, fishbone, fault and event trees.
- Identify failed and missing barriers via bow-tie.
- Write defensible reports and share lessons learned.
Who Should Enroll
This certificate is designed for incident investigators, HSE managers and advisors, operations and shift supervisors, maintenance and reliability engineers, quality and compliance officers, human resources and employee relations staff, insurance and claims assessors, and leaders accountable for corrective action closure.
Skills You Will Build
- Evidence Preservation
- Scene Documentation
- Witness Interviewing
- Root Cause Analysis
- Fault Tree Analysis
- Event Tree Analysis
- Barrier Analysis
- Human Factors Assessment
- Corrective Action Planning
- Investigation Reporting
- Reporting Culture Development
- Regulatory Notification
- Causation Model Application
- Chain Of Custody Control
- Cognitive Interview Technique
- Systemic Cause Identification
- Bias Avoidance
- Action Effectiveness Verification
- Lessons Learned Sharing
- Just Culture Leadership
Course Outline – Incident Investigation
Module 1: Introduction to Incident Investigation
- What Counts as an Incident
- The Purpose: Prevention, Not Blame
- The Business and Human Case for Investigation
- The Role of the Investigator
Module 2: Incident Types and Reporting Culture
- Classifying Incidents: Injuries, Near Misses, and Dangerous Occurrences
- The Accident Iceberg and the Value of Near-Miss Data
- Barriers to Reporting
- Designing a Reporting System People Trust
Module 3: The Legal and Regulatory Landscape
- Duty of Care and the Regulatory Rationale
- Key Frameworks: OSHA, HSE, RIDDOR, and ISO 45001
- Reportable Events and Notification Timelines
- Legal Privilege, Liability, and the Investigation Record
Module 4: Accident Causation Theories and Safety Science
- Early Models: Domino Theory and the Heinrich Ratio
- The Swiss Cheese Model and Latent Conditions
- Energy-Barrier and Epidemiological Models
- Systems Thinking and Complexity in Modern Safety
Module 5: The Investigation Process
- The Investigation Lifecycle at a Glance
- Notification, Triage, and Response
- Scaling the Investigation to the Incident
- Assembling and Leading the Team
Module 6: Securing and Documenting the Scene
- Making the Scene Safe First
- Establishing and Controlling the Perimeter
- Photography, Video, and Sketching the Scene
- Chain of Custody and Evidence Logging
Module 7: Gathering Evidence
- The Four Ps: People, Parts, Position, Paper
- Physical and Forensic Evidence
- Documentary and Electronic Records
- Environmental and Contextual Data
Module 8: Interviewing Witnesses
- The Psychology of Witness Memory
- Planning and Sequencing Interviews
- The Cognitive Interview Technique
- Avoiding Leading Questions and Bias
Module 9: Root Cause Analysis Fundamentals
- Symptoms, Causes, and Root Causes
- Immediate, Underlying, and Root Cause Layers
- The Danger of Stopping at Human Error
- Criteria for a True Root Cause
Module 10: The 5 Whys and Cause-and-Effect Methods
- How and When to Use the 5 Whys
- Common Pitfalls of the 5 Whys
- The Fishbone (Ishikawa) Diagram
- Categorizing Causes: The 6 Ms and Beyond
Learn at your convenience
*Note: These are self-paced courses, allowing learners to study independently at their own pace.
Build Your Skills. Advance Your Career.
