1. An authoring tool that assists an author in building an automated diagnostic system for a product, the authoring tool comprising: a cause editor interface that allows an author to place, in a cause data structure, information pertaining to causes; an action editor interface that allows an author to place, in an action data structure, information pertaining to actions that can be taken in response to the causes; and question editor interface that allows an author to place, in a question data structure, information pertaining to questions that can be asked a user of the product to help identify causes: