Software failure mode and effects analysis

Abstract

Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is a key safety assessment analysis that determine failure modes at system, hardware and software level. Overlooking Failure Modes can often cause system or functionality failure which directly impacts a systems safety performance, reliability and quality. FMEA is a bottom-up approach which has four key phases - identification of fault, assessment of impact, determination of potential causes and their resolutions, and finally testing and documentation of analysis. FMEA addresses the effect of failures at the system, software and hardware level. The outcome of the analysis helps us identify gaps in safety requirements specification and provides input for component testing, integration testing and system level testing. This paper describes the application of Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) to software modules.