A method for operating a wind turbine includes receiving a value of a sensor and comparing the value with a reference, determining depending on the comparison between the value with the reference whether a malfunction of the wind turbine is present; determining the cause of the malfunction of the wind turbine depending on at least one of: the sensor type or the measured value, wherein the cause determination includes: automatically creating a first list including at least one possible cause of the malfunction depending on the sensor type or the measured value; and automatically creating a second list including a sequence of at least two steps, wherein a first step of the second list is based on the a cause selected from the first list and a second step of the second list is automatically determined based on a result of the first step.