Model-Based Failure Modes and Effects Analysis of Software

Failure Mode and Effects Analysis is widely used in engineering hardware systems to help in understanding the effects of potential failures and the faults that cause them to occur. The analysis is iterative leading to improvements in the design until the risks associated with potential failure modes are reduced to an acceptable level. Interest in applying the technique to software has increased in recent years, particularly among embedded software developers who are already familiar with the benefits of FMEA analysis. Several authors discuss experiences of performing manual FMEA of software however there has been no attempt at automating the (very tedious) analysis. We describe a model based approach inspired by both work in diagnosis of software and the success of model based automated FMEA for hardware.