The analytical methods of failure modes effects and criticality analysis (FMECA) and failure modes effects analysis (FMEA) have been around since the 1940s. In recent years, much effort has been spent on bringing hardware related analyses such as FMECA into the realm of software engineering. In "Software FMEA/FMECA," George Novacek takes a close look at software FMECA (SWFMECA) and its potential for making software development more predictable. Novacek writes:

The roots of failure modes effects and criticality analysis (FMECA) and failure modes effects analysis (FMEA) date back to World War II. FMEA is a subset of FMECA in which the criticality assessment has been omitted. Therefore, for simplicity, I'll be using the terms FMECA and SWFMECA only in this article. FMECA was developed for identification of potential hardware failures and their mitigation to ensure mission success. During the 1950s, FMECA became indispensable for analyses of equipment in critical applications, such as those occurring in military, aerospace, nuclear, medical, automotive, and other industries.

FMECA is a structured, bottom-up approach considering a failure of each and every component, its impact on the system and how to prevent or mitigate such a failure. FMECA is often combined with fault tree analysis (FTA) or event tree analyses (ETA). The FTA differs from the ETA only in that the former is focused on failures as the top event, the latter on some specific events. Those analyses start with an event and then drill down through the system to their root cause. Read More